Where We Belong
by SofiaSofiaSofia
Summary: This is the sequel to "Against All Odds." Callie and Arizona's second child, Faith, experienced a challenging childhood. Now that she is an adult, she is still as determined as ever not to let her medical condition stop her from having the life that she wants.
1. It's Good To Be Back

**Now that you know the story of Faith's childhood, here is the story of her adulthood. As with the first story, there are other characters involved; there will be chapters that explore the lives of other family members as well. That way you can get a well-rounded idea of how the entire family has grown and changed. There are no flashbacks in this particular chapter, but some chapters will have them for those of you who still would like to see more of Little Faith. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for reading.**

* * *

"This procedure, developed in part by our very own Dr. Robbins, is now a common treatment –"

"The F.E.T. procedure!"

The intern locker room was abuzz with excitement as this year's group began to study for their test. They still had a while before they had to take it, but they had been quizzing each other already. Last week during Dr. Sloan's skills lab, they had been told that there was one year many, many years back in which even Miranda Bailey's favourite intern hadn't passed. This had instantly terrified the young surgeons since they didn't exactly know the whole story. If Dr. Bailey's favourite could flunk, did they stand a chance at passing?

Knowing the details of what had gone on and who George O'Malley was, Faith wasn't worried. He hadn't failed because he wasn't a good doctor. Still, she was a Torres and she had a reputation of testing excellence to live up to. Therefore, she was also already thinking about the upcoming exam.

"Way too easy," she told her peers. "Who doesn't know that? I know I'm my mom's kid, but everyone here would still agree that that's far too simple. Most of us have scrubbed in on a few. Next question."

Really, she just wanted to move on. She had been proud of her mom for this achievement ever since she was able to really understand what it meant. However, Arizona and the rest of the group had chosen to name the procedure after her – Faith Evelyn Torres – and this felt somewhat awkward. After all, she had never even had the procedure done herself. Nonetheless, her mom said that she knew that they needed to name it just what they had. The second phase was named after Dr. Robbins, but the whole thing had been inspired by Faith. It was the only name that they wanted it to have.

"Why are you even studying?" one of the other interns asked her.

Just then, Arizona came into the room and handed her daughter a stack of four charts. They were from the night before and she wasn't impressed with them at all.

"These need to be redone," she told her. "They're sloppy."

"I was working all night –"

"They're sloppy," she repeated. "Fix them."

When she had entered into her intern year, Faith had made it clear to each doctor who knew her that she didn't want to be treated any differently. She had worked hard to achieve what she had in medical school, and she wanted to prove herself. She didn't want her name or any of the favourable connections she had to get her any sort of special treatment. On the flip side, it also didn't get her out of moments like this one.

"Okay," she said.

"You were supposed to leave and go pick Sofia up from the airport right about now, but I will," she decided.

"Fine. Is Sebastian still here?"

"I already told him to find you before he leaves," she answered.

"Alright."

"How'd your appointment go?" she asked.

Faith was an adult, so she obviously didn't see Dr. Brady anymore. Teddy had taken over her case when she had turned eighteen. Now that Dr. Altman was close to retirement, Cristina was familiarizing herself with every detail of Faith's long history before Teddy no longer worked there. Of course, Faith knew her own history well and both Teddy and Dr. Brady were never far away, but they still wanted to make the transition early while they had the choice.

"Don't you think you'd know if it didn't go well?"

They had expected that Faith would begin to encounter more problems with her donor heart as she grew, but things had gone well. She had had many hospitalizations since her transplant, but she hadn't needed any more surgery which was considered excellent news. The medical advancements of the last two decades were to thank for this. She was on much better medications now than she had had back when she was small. They figured that the day would eventually come when Faith would need surgery again, but they weren't necessarily just sitting around waiting for it.

"I'm always going to ask," she said. "Get used to it."

"I know."

* * *

Sebastian gave Faith a kiss as they walked up to her mothers' house about two hours later.

"What was that for?" she smiled.

"We were both at the hospital all night, but we didn't get any time together," he told his fiancé.

The couple had been together for years now. What had started out as a childhood friendship had turned into a teenage relationship, and eventually grown into a serious commitment. They would be tying the knot that summer.

"I know. Sorry. You were working with Dustin again, right?"

"Yeah."

Sebastian's experiences as a child had inspired him to get into the medical field in some way. He knew that becoming a surgeon wasn't for him, but he did love his career as a Child Life Specialist. He was able to help sick children and their family members to navigate through the tough times that they had to endure. He could relate to many of the things that they were struggling with, so it felt like the perfect job for him.

"How's he doing?"

"I was up all night with a five-year-old," he said. "How does that sound?"

"Poor kid."

"Medically he's doing better, but he has a tough time understanding why he can't be home yet. He's had enough of all of the chemo, and he just wants to get out of there. I didn't even work with him much last night. I mostly just listened to him tell me that he hated the doctors while his parents finally got a break from it."

"Oh," she said as she opened the door.

The squealing that they were met with put smiles back on both of their faces. For a few hours, they were going to put the thoughts of sad, sick kids out of their minds and focus on the little get-together that was going on there.

Maxwell met them at the door with his little boy on his hip. The nine-month-old wasn't shy in the least. No, he wanted all of the attention that he could get.

"Declan!" Faith greeted him. "Oh, I love that smile!"

Daddy handed him over. They were expecting Auntie Sofia, but Faith would do. Actually, Declan was much more familiar with her. His aunt hadn't been home in months, but he saw her sister often.

"We were wrong," he said. "It's not Auntie Sofia. It's Faith and Sebastian."

"Sof's not here yet?" she asked as they took their shoes off and made their way into the main living area.

"The flight got delayed," Callie explained. "They'll be home any minute, though. Mom just called."

"Okay."

"And Declan's been keeping us busy," Lexie smiled. "Right? Say 'Right, Nana!'"

"I still don't get the Nana thing," Maxwell said. "He's Grandpa. Shouldn't you be Grandma?"

"Grandma sounds too old," she replied.

"And you're not old?"

"Not as old as everyone else," she defended. "So I'm Nana."

"Does it really matter?" Declan's mom, Chelsea, asked. "We're been calling her Nana for nine months. Let it go already."

Declan began babbling again as he reached his chubby little baby arms out towards his grandfather. Now that Mark was partially retired, he and his grandson spent some of their days together and they both loved it. Mark was still involved in the medical field three days out of the week, but he and Declan spent Thursdays and Fridays having all sorts of fun. As much as Mark still didn't want to give up his part-time duties as a doctor, he had to admit that he liked his days with the baby so much more than going to work. He swore that they helped to keep him young.

"What?" he asked as he took the little man from Faith. "You can't wait for Auntie Sofia to get home? I know. L.A. stole her away for too long, huh? But now she's a fifth year and Arizona's going to suck her in. She'll do her fellowship here. Yeah!"

"If she doesn't, my mom'll be devastated," Faith said.

"She will," Callie promised. "She wanted to start her career somewhere else, and make a name for herself without us around, but she always wanted to end up back here."

"I know."

"Now all she needs to do is find a good man."

"She's my kid," Mark replied. "Give her time. Look at Max and Chelsea. They've been together for four years and they're still just 'dating.' Us with the Sloan genes, we just take time."

"Exactly," his son agreed.

"How much time do you think you'll take?" Lexie asked.

"We'll get married before Declan does. How's that?" Chelsea smiled as she took some of her blonde hair out of her eyes. "We're just not in a rush. We're happy, Declan's happy..."

"I know. I'm just teasing."

"And in fairness to them, Seb and I have been together for longer. It only makes sense that we'd be married first," Faith said.

"True," Callie smiled. "We're dress shopping tomorrow. Wow."

"I'm getting married, not disappearing. You want Sof to find somebody, but I have somebody and you're freaking out because I'm getting married?"

"She still sees you as a three-year-old," Lexie said. "You're her baby."

"I grew up," she laughed. "Deal with it."

The conversation was interrupted when Sofia and Arizona finally arrived home. The guest of honour threw down her things and ran to see everyone. As much as she had always loved California – and had even let it become her temporary home – she loved Seattle so much more.

"You're so huge now!" she told Declan as she took him from Mark. "Hi!"

"He pulls hair now," Chelsea warned. "Watch it."

"You pull hair?" she asked. "Not my sweet Declan!"

He laughed.

"I don't mean to be rude, but what's for lunch? I'm starving."

"We ordered pizza," her brother answered.

"You're both chefs!" she told both him and his girlfriend. "You can't even cook real food to welcome me home?"

"Have you ever operated on me? No."

"Technically you'll be going back. You're not home for good," Faith pointed out. "You're only here for your 'interview.' You work in L.A. until –"

"Still. Pizza?" she asked.

"Pizza's good," she said.

"Because you can't have it very often," she replied.

"True. We'll go out for a real lunch after dress shopping tomorrow."

"Are we looking for everyone's dresses?" she wondered.

"What everyone?" she asked. "There's my dress and there's your dress. Mom and Madre somehow already know what they're wearing and besides you, I'm not having a bridal party. This thing is small."

"Then how come I've been hearing about it for a year?"

"It's still my wedding!"

* * *

"Look who it is," Seattle Grace Mercy West's current Chief of Surgery, Miranda Bailey, smiled when she saw Sofia on her surgical floor later on. "How soon before L.A. has to give you up?"

"I'll be here soon," she smiled back. "For now, I'm just going to observe a procedure that my mom and Faith are doing. Do you know how annoying that is? That my baby sister gets to operate while I watch?"

"I'll give you privileges," she offered.

"Yes, please," she said. "Can you also let me know how many of these guys my parents plan to set me up with? I'd like to be prepared for when I do end up here."

She laughed.

"I've heard of a few ideas," she admitted.

"What is so hard for them to understand about 'I want to focus on my career?'"

"They work here," she said with an eye roll. "Here nobody ever seems to _only_ be focused on their career. Plus, they want grandbabies. Your dad and Lexie have Declan and it's making your mamas a little crazy."

"One day," she said. "But again. Career. Why is that a tough concept? I'm not even a Fellow yet."

"Just go scrub in with your mom and Faith," she told her. "It's good to have you back."

"I never worked here."

"You know what I mean. Besides, you will one day."

"Yeah," she agreed. "It's good to be back."

* * *

Arizona had been waiting many years to scrub in with both of her girls. Faith was still an intern, but she had made no secret of the fact that her goal was to follow in the footsteps of Teddy and Cristina. It seemed to be the only logical choice for her. Sofia, on the other hand, had chosen Pediatric surgery. She had watched her sister go through so much starting from birth. Now she wanted the chance to give as many children as she could their lives back.

"Admit it," Sofia said that night as she, her sister, and their moms all spent some time at the house.

Her parents had never been the type to try to control her life or anything like that, but they had made no secret of the fact that they had wished that she wouldn't have ever wanted to work in California. They just didn't want her that far away. She may have been grown, but they still didn't see what was wrong with Seattle Grace Mercy West's surgical program.

"L.A. might have been good for you," Arizona said.

"That's all I'm saying," she smiled. "But I'm doing my fellowship here. I mean, if it's offered."

Callie laughed.

"Somehow I don't think that'll be a problem," she told her.

"I've missed it here," she said. "I don't even like that I still have to head back for a little while. I can't wait until I can take my boards, finish up this year, and be home. Not only will I be the best Peds. Fellow you've ever seen, but I'll get to spend more time with Declan, and help Faith get all of the rest of the wedding stuff ready."

"I thought you didn't love weddings?" Arizona questioned.

"Other people's weddings are great," Sofia replied. "But no plotting to get me married."

"We're not _plotting_," Callie said. "We just think that you'd like some of the guys here."

"I love surgery," she replied.

"Are you sure you're your father's child?" her mom teased.

"There have been plenty of men," she clarified. "I just don't want futures with them at this point. I'll settle down, but for now I only want to become the best surgeon that I can."

"We did a good job, didn't we?" Arizona asked her wife.

"I'd say so," Callie nodded.

"Do we get any credit?" Faith asked.

"You're great," Arizona smiled.

Faith stood up and gathered her things.

"And with that, I must go," she said. "Because before we can pick out dresses tomorrow, I have to sit through Mark's skills lab again in the morning."

"Is it really that annoying?" Sofia asked. "Maybe I'll go, too."

"To everyone else, no. To me, yes. He's trying to convince me that I have what it takes to go into Plastics."

"Seeing E.N.T. patients the other two days that he works is good, but he'll never want to let go of the Plastics," Callie said. "Even if it's just while teaching a skills lab once a week, he's never going to stop talking about everything he's done."

"Maybe I won't go," Sofia replied.

"Oh, your specialty's been decided. Officially. He'll bring it up, but he won't be quite as insistent," her sister explained.

"Just go," Arizona laughed. "It'll make him happy."

"She will," Faith smiled. "I don't have a choice, and I'm not giving her one. Now, I think my fiancé'd appreciate time with me that doesn't involve work, family gatherings, or wedding planning."

"Bye," Callie said. "You're on my service tomorrow. That's how I convinced Bailey to give us all a few hours off to dress shop. I had to tear you away from Cristina and give someone else a chance with her."

"I've been on Peds. for two days."

"Fixing the heart of a child," Arizona countered.

"True."

"Ortho's not bad."

"It's not Cardio."


	2. The Ups

**Thank you so much for all of the reviews, favourites, and follows. They are much appreciated.**

* * *

Callie and Arizona woke up the next morning feeling honoured to be able to help Faith select her wedding dress that day. They had always enjoyed a close relationship with both of their children, so they weren't surprised that she wanted them to be a part of this decision. Still, it meant a lot. Callie was especially thrilled because she hadn't gotten to share any of these happy moments of her life with her mother. Arizona had at least kept hers updated at the time, but Callie's mom hadn't wanted anything to do with helping them plan for their big day. Over thirty years later, she felt as though this would be a wonderful chance to get to live those moments through Faith in a way.

"Good morning," she smiled as she handed her wife a cup of coffee.

Now that they didn't have little girls to get ready for school, the beginnings of their days were usually much less chaotic. Sure, there were times when they would wake up to a page and have to run off to the hospital right away, but that wasn't necessarily a daily thing. When they had a few quiet minutes, they loved to just spend them with each other. The topics of conversation hadn't changed much, since they still typically discussed their work or their children, but they loved these early moments nonetheless.

"Thank you," she replied as she gave her a kiss. "Is Sofia still asleep?"

"No. She just got in the shower."

Arizona smiled.

"I love it when she's here."

"You know that she'll get her own place when she moves back," Callie pointed out. "She doesn't want to be the resident who lives with her parents."

"You lived in the hospital basement," Arizona said. "I don't see how her living here is any more pathetic."

"Arizona..."

"I know. I was kidding. I know she'll get her own place, but it'll be a place in the city. That'll still be great."

"Yeah," she agreed. "So, we're dress shopping today."

"We can't be too opinionated," Arizona said.

"We won't be. If she's happy, then that's all that I want. It's her day. I'm just worried about them being able to make alterations without very much time left. Most women order their dresses further in advance."

"But she wanted Sofia here."

"I know."

"It'll work out."

"Oh, I'm sure it will."

Arizona found herself just staring at her wife. Many things had changed in the three decades since their wedding, but the love that they had for each other had only grown. Sure, both of them had aged and their appearances weren't exactly the same now, but she still thought her wife was the most beautiful woman that she had ever met. Considering all of the not-very-good times that they had gone through, they felt extremely lucky to still have such a solid relationship. They could only wish the same for Faith and eventually Sofia.

"What?" Callie smiled.

"I'm just thinking about how happy marrying you made me," she told her. "If Faith can have even a little of what we've had for all of this time that would be perfect."

"Minus all of the hard things," Callie said.

"Right. She's had enough of those. So has Sebastian."

"Definitely."

"She's become such a great person, though. Maybe we just don't see any bad in her and Sofia because they're ours, but..."

"Watching her try on wedding gowns is just going to feel like she's playing dress up again, isn't it?"

"Probably," she said. "But if we have to let her be anybody else's, I'm glad she'll be Sebastian's. He looks at her the way you look at me."

"I was going to say the same thing."

* * *

_Four-year-old Faith stood in the doorway to her parents' bedroom. Sofia was at Mark and Lexie's, and playing with the dog had gotten old a few minutes ago. Now she wanted to see what was going on with the grownups. _

_Arizona was in a white, one shoulder cocktail dress. She made her way over to the mirror and her face showed just how deep in thought she was. Faith didn't really understand this, but her mommy was trying to find just the right dress to wear the night that she would receive her Harper Avery award. Knowing that winning this was going to lead to many different events, she had purchased many choices already. However, she still didn't know which one was the one for the big night._

"_Is it too short?" she asked. "I'm not so sure about short. We picked this because my legs look good in it, but does it say more about my body than it does about me?"_

"_It says 'I'm incredibly smart, but I'm also hot,'" Callie decided. "It's not like you can see anything. It's not inappropriately short. I say why not go for something that's a tad more adventurous? The night's about you."_

"_I'm a mom," she said. "Should my legs really be the focus of my look?"_

"_Mommy, you look pretty," Faith piped up. _

"_I do, huh?" she turned around. "Do you like this one or that one better?" _

_Her mini-me looked over to a silver dress that was similar, but just a little longer. Arizona was also considering wearing it. She felt more covered up in that one, but her wife was clearly fond of the slightly more daring white one. _

"_The white one," she responded. "You look like it's a weddin'."_

_Callie laughed. Faith was just associating white dresses with weddings. This looked nothing like what either of them would ever consider as a wedding dress._

"_You think?" she asked._

"_Yep," she nodded. _

"_Well, I'm wearing a red dress," Callie said. "It's not a wedding."_

"_Oh."_

"_I think this one might not be best," Arizona told them. "Let's try the silver again."_

"_You'll look shiny like a pretty thing," Faith predicted._

"_Hopefully not too, too shiny."_

"_Mommy, just wear your favourite."_

"_Good advice," the blonde smiled. "If I wear my favourite, I'll feel good in it, right?"_

"_Right," she said. _

"_Do you want to see the one that I picked out?" Callie questioned._

_Faith nodded. She was hoping that this would turn into a fun little fashion show of sorts just for her and her moms. She was certainly a girly girl and she was going to enjoy getting to pretend whatever she wanted as they showed off different looks. Maybe the wedding thing was wrong, but she could still imagine something else. She wasn't nearly as caught up in the Harper Avery hype as her madre seemed to be. She knew that Mommy had done something good at work, but what was this special thing that her parents were going to attend like? Most importantly, why wasn't she invited? _

* * *

Faith and Sebastian were still in bed. She was excited to go dress shopping later on, but she wasn't looking forward to working first. She still wasn't a morning person, and it wasn't so easy to get out of bed even today. She felt like the first part of the day would drag on until it was time for her to leave and go to the bridal salon.

"We should get up," her fiancé said, giving her a kiss.

"I have to go to a Plastics skills lab and then I'm on Ortho all morning."

"At least you're working with your madre. And the skills labs may not be your thing, but Mark's cool."

"True."

"Are you sure I can't see your dress?" he wondered.

He had to work a full shift today, so there was no chance that he could possibly make it to the store. In all honesty, he also didn't exactly want to sit around as all of the women made a big deal out of every little detail of every single dress. Despite this, he already wanted to see the one that Faith decided on as soon as she did so.

"Very," she smiled.

"Why not?" he asked. "You can't possibly believe it's bad luck."

"I don't," she explained. "But I just can't wait to see your face on our wedding day, and I feel like some of that moment will be lost if you already know what the dress looks like."

"You'll know what my tux will look like."

"Not the same. I've seen you in a tux before. You've never seen me in a wedding dress."

"So I really have to wait?"

"You really do," she nodded as she kissed him. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not," he laughed.

"I am a little bit," she said. "Hey, question."

"What?"

"Do you care if my scar shows?"

Faith wasn't the least bit self-conscious about the marking. She had had it since she was a newborn and it had always been a part of her. She didn't see it as something that was unattractive. Instead, she saw it as proof of all that she had overcome.

"No," he replied. "If you don't, why should I?"

"I don't know. I just thought you might think that I was planning to cover it up. If it ends up covered, that's fine, but I'm not purposely going for that."

"Okay."

* * *

After Mark's skills lab and a surgery with Callie, Faith was ready to go and select the perfect wedding dress. The only problem was that she didn't know what exactly she was looking for. She had been thinking about it for some time – probably since childhood if she was being honest – but she could still see herself in so many different dress styles. Narrowing it down to _the _dress seemed a little daunting. She wanted a dress that clearly felt like it belonged at a wedding, but wasn't too over the top.

She was able to eventually pick two simple, yet elegant dresses. Both of them had sweetheart necklines which everyone had said looked great on her. The very top of her scar did show, yet nobody seemed to be looking at it. They had seen it so many times – and it was so faded – that they didn't even notice it. Now Faith just had to make one last choice between her two favourite dresses.

"Which one do you like best?" she asked her mothers. "You're paying for it."

"We love them both," Callie said. "You pick the one that you want the most. We'd be paying for it regardless."

"You're sure?"

"We're sure," Arizona nodded.

"I like that one," Sofia pointed to one of them.

"Me too," Sebastian's mother, Wren, agreed.

"Yeah," Faith smiled. "I think I do, too."

* * *

"So has it actually sunk in that you're really getting married yet?" Wren asked when they all went out to eat after they had found dresses for both Faith and Sofia at the same salon.

Faith had known her ever since she could remember, so the two were already close even though she wasn't officially a part of the family yet. She and Sebastian had included her and Sebastian's dad, Darren, in the wedding preparations just as much as they had included Faith's side of the family. They were so grateful that merging the two families was going to be so simple.

"It definitely did today," she smiled. "I kind of felt like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. Only Christmas morning is going to be the best day of my life, so it's so, so much better."

A smile spread across Arizona's face, too. She had to admit that she was getting more excited as well.

"At first, I thought you were insane for getting engaged when you did," she told her. "Planning a wedding in your intern year hasn't been easy. I started to understand today."

"They're at that point where if they have to wait any longer, they may lose their minds," Wren said.

"We didn't really get that," Callie replied.

"We didn't?" Arizona asked. "Wow, thanks."

"I just mean that by the time we got married, our lives were what they were always going to be," Callie said. "There wasn't really a 'next step' after marriage or anything. We were already parents and all of that. The next big thing we did was buy a house before we had Faith. Everything else had already been done."

"True."

"And did you guys even get a honeymoon?" Faith wondered.

"Of course," she answered. "We left Sofia home –"

"Because you loved me so much," their oldest teased.

"It wasn't considered abandonment if they left you with your dad," her sister joked.

"It was great, but we also couldn't wait to get home," Arizona smiled.

"That's the only thing I don't love about when we're getting married," Faith vented. "We get a weekend away, not an actual honeymoon. I can't get more than three days off."

"You're going away beforehand, though," Wren said. "That sort of counts."

The newlyweds-to-be were taking full advantage of the two week break that Faith would have after her intern year was complete. Sure, it probably couldn't be called a honeymoon if it happened before they tied the knot, but they had to improvise.

"We know," she nodded. "That's why we don't really care that much."

Arizona's phone went off. She had received a text from Teddy. It was a message that everyone at the table had been dreading, but they had known that it would be coming eventually.

"It's Adler," she said. "He's at the hospital. He lost consciousness earlier."

Their miracle patient had done well for a considerable amount of time, but now his heart was failing him. Teddy had tried as much as she could to keep him out of the hospital while he waited for a much needed donor heart, but she had just had to admit him until word came from UNOS.

"And on that note, let's go back," Faith replied.

She was all too used to the ups and downs of this life by now. After all, she had grown up in a group of people with cardiac related issues. As sad as it was, hearing bad news wasn't uncommon. Especially now that everyone was getting older, it was coming along more and more frequently.

"How long has he been waiting now?" Wren asked. "Two years, right?"

"Twenty-six months," Faith specified.

"He's actually done well. Teddy's been able to keep him at home this whole time," Arizona said.

"Does that mean anything, though?" Callie questioned. "There's still no heart."

"We just have to keep his spirits up," Faith said. "It'll come."


	3. And The Downs

"I thought you were supposed to look happy after an afternoon of dress shopping," Mark commented as he saw Callie, Arizona, Sofia, and Faith walk into the hospital.

Needless to say, they didn't exactly look full of joy. The whole family had gotten to know Adler and his family very, very well over the years. They weren't looking forward to walking into his hospital room once again.

"I thought you were supposed to be retired," Sofia countered. "Seriously. The skills lab is over. What are you doing here?"

"Watching surgeries," he replied. "What else am I supposed to do? Go fishing or something? Really, though. What happened?"

"Adler just got admitted," Arizona told him.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Callie said.

"Can I please, please, please be let off of your service?" Faith pleaded.

"Adler's your future husband's best man," she said. "Don't you think you might be a little too close to the patient?"

"I know his history better than any other intern," she replied.

"She has a point," Sofia agreed.

"Fine," Callie said. "Go. But you will be on my service all day tomorrow. I mean it. Bailey's insistent that all of the interns have to be well-rounded."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" she called back as she headed off. "Thank you!"

"Do you have anything for me to scrub in on?" Sofia asked Arizona.

"No," Arizona said. "But I do want you to go study for your boards. I know you're good and you're focused, but I think you're underestimating how nerve-wracking they can be. You may have a fellowship offer already, but you still have to do well. You won't be doing your fellowship here _just_ because you're my kid."

"Mom, I've got this," she said. "I've been studying."

"I'm giving you a chance that other residents don't get. Take it."

"Or I could go with Dad and we could see if Jackson has any cleft palette babies for me to work on. I'd be studying and fixing a baby all at the same time."

"Why are our children so manipulative?" she asked.

"They're surgeons," Callie said. "They've had to make a case for everything that they've wanted to do so far. Why stop now?"

"Come on," Mark told Sofia. "I can do you one better. You should see this kid that just came in. Avery's rearranging his face."

"What happened?"

"Let's just say he probably doesn't have an athletic bone in his body."

* * *

"Oh, you're my intern?" Adler asked when Faith walked into his room a few minutes after that. "Now I'm just screwed."

She knew that he was only giving her a hard time. At least it was a positive sign that he was joking around. She picked up his chart and took a look. Clearly this wasn't good news, but Teddy had managed to stabilize him for now. At this point, they apparently had to start thinking about things with him one day at a time.

She laughed.

"Well, Dr. Altman called UNOS and you're going to get bumped up on the list," she said.

"Looks like you'll have to tell your fiancé that he's going to need a new best man, huh?"

Faith had chosen her sister to be her maid of honour, but Sebastian had had to choose a best man out of a group of his closest friends instead. Ultimately, he chose him. Now that he was stuck in the hospital, Adler felt terrible that this may not work out.

"Shut up."

"Do you tell all of your patients to shut up?"

"Shut up," she replied. "You could very well get a heart and be recovered enough to be there by then. At least for the ceremony. I am not telling him to get a new best man. Not yet. Neither are you."

She put the chart down and went to sit on the edge of his bed. If any of her superiors were around right now, they probably would have taken her off of the case - or at least given her a talk - because she was starting to cross professional boundaries. According to her, she was only doing what she thought was right. Adler needed someone to tell him that now was not the time to give up.

"It's unbelievably crappy that you're going to be stuck here for a while. Maybe a long while. It's frustrating, terrifying, and draining. I don't remember waiting for my heart and I wasn't hospitalized until I got mine, but I remember going through it with Sebastian. I can tell you that if you're acting defeated now, you will not be fighting as hard. I know it's been a long twenty-six months. Like I said, I don't remember my wait, but I'm sure it's not easy. Just stop counting yourself out already. Adler, it's not too late. Surgical techniques and medications have improved so much. Look at me. I've been able to avoid rejection and live a relatively normal life for most of my life. Seb had to get a second transplant, but it'll be ten years in July and he's done well. If you get a new heart, you can live a much longer life than most transplant patients used to."

"If I get one."

"There are no guarantees. But why are you acting like you're just here to die? My mom's treatment bought you so many quality years and this transplant could do the same thing."

"I went on three dates last month and all three women were freaked out by the UNOS thing. Before that came up, we were having a great time. Turns out that the ladies don't really like to hear that my life pretty much comes down to luck of the draw. I try not to even talk about it, but it always comes up somehow. They want to go do some activity that I can't, they ask about my goals...something. I'm in my twenties, Faith. I don't want to spend _any_ time in here."

"There is a very pretty girl waiting on a set of lungs," she told him. "She's been here for about a month and I think that she'd be absolutely fine with talking about UNOS on a first date. She's a redhead, she..."

"Now you're just trying way too hard," he smiled.

"Maybe. But you're not talking about not being able to be at my wedding. Which, by the way, you will be. If you aren't, we'll be fine, but you will be."

"Deal."

"Thank you," she said as she stood up. "Do you want me to call your family for you?"

"Justice was with me when I passed out," he answered. "They know. They're getting some things together for me. My mom insists on making this place a little more 'homey.'"

"Alright," she smiled. "Have the nurses page me if you need anything, okay? Dr. Altman just took your vitals, so..."

"Okay," he said.

"I'll send Sebastian in if he has a minute."

"Thanks."

* * *

_"He's better today, right?" Wren asked Arizona as she updated Sebastian's chart at the nurses' station._

_Her son was waiting for his second donor heart. The first one had lasted him until now, but his body was rejecting it. Wren was at the point where even good days weren't happy. Sebastian hadn't been doing well at all, so she didn't think that good days were possible anymore._

"_He is," Arizona replied with a smile._

"_Is this that thing where people who are dying get better right before they die? Is that what's happening?"_

"_That is not what's happening. He's having a good day. If I thought that there was a chance that this wasn't a good sign, I would tell you so that you could spend as much time as possible with him. Wren, just enjoy the good day. He won't get better without a heart, but he can have days that are better than others."_

"_Okay."_

_To their surprise, Faith walked up just as this little conversation was concluding. It was a Friday night and she was supposed to be at a dance at her high school. Yet there she was – pink dress and all – at the hospital._

"_What are you doing here?" her mom asked._

"_That thing was probably going to be boring," the seventeen-year-old decided. "I thought I'd come keep Sebastian company instead if that's okay."_

_Wren smiled. Many of Sebastian's friends were stopping by for visits and supporting him, but Faith was there most often. They didn't know if it was because her parents worked at the hospital, because she herself had been through this, or because she had a crush on Sebastian. They suspected the latter._

"_Sure," Wren smiled. "Go ahead."_

_They watched Sebastian's expression change when Faith entered his room._

"_I think this might be considered a date," Arizona whispered to her._

"_It's a pretty lame one," she said._

"_I think it's sweet."_

* * *

Faith went and found Sebastian. He had just finished working with a little girl, so he was cleaning up various dolls and other toys in his office. She was glad that it seemed like he had a minute, because, she was sure that he'd need some time to process the news that she had. They may have known that Adler was getting worse, but it didn't make it any easier to hear that he was now in the hospital again.

"Hey," he smiled when he saw her. "Did you get a dress?"

"I did," she nodded. "It's gorgeous and I'm not telling you anything else about it. But we have to talk."

"About...?"

"Adler," she said. "He's been admitted until UNOS finds him a heart."

"Why is news like this still so hard to hear? You would think it would be –"

"There's nothing easy about this," she told him. "He's stable for now and he'll be bumped up on the list, but he's already feeling defeated. He told me to tell you to pick a new best man. You need to go talk to him. I did, but I don't remember being in his shoes."

"Okay," he agreed. "And I'm not picking a new best man."

"I know you aren't."

"If the day gets closer and he can't be there, I will, but I'm not doing it now just because. He has time."

"Yeah."

"He has time, right? A heart could actually come in time?"

"Of course it could," she answered. "We just don't know that it will. But my aunt Teddy's one of the best Cardio –"

"I know."

He gave her a kiss. News like this was never something he wanted to get, but he also didn't want to harp on the horrible feeling when they had no control over it. He didn't want to sit there and have a depressing conversation about one of their friends for very much longer.

"What was that for?"

"Why do you always ask me that?"

"Why do you always kiss me when I'm not expecting you to?"

"Because I can," he smiled. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she replied. "And I'm so excited to marry you. I know the wedding's not _right_ around the corner, but it's getting closer! Now that I have a dress picked out, I just want to do it already."

"Like elope?"

He knew that this was never going to happen. He wanted a full wedding celebration just as much as she did. They didn't even want to elope. Still, he understood the temptation now. The wedding day wasn't close enough for his liking just yet.

"My moms would kill me."

"Your madre has eloped."

"And that worked out," she laughed. "No elopement. Now go see Adler. And be a lot more convincing with him than you just were with me."

"I wasn't actually trying to convince you to elope," he smiled. "I'm going. What room is he in?"

* * *

"_I have pudding and I have homework," Faith told her boyfriend of a whole six days – ever since the night that she skipped the dance - as she walked into his hospital room. "Which do you want first?"_

"_Pudding, please," he requested. "What homework did they send this time?"_

"_A little bit of everything," she answered as she handed him the snack._

_Even though he was waiting for his new heart, he was doing his best to keep up with his school work. He couldn't do it every day and his grades were beginning to fall, but he didn't want to give up just yet. He was trying to be sure that a heart would come. When it did, he didn't want to be held back a grade. Plus, the homework actually gave him something to do when he was feeling alright but he was bored out of his mind._

"_Thanks," he said as he gave her a kiss. _

"_You're welcome," she smiled. "You can do mine if you want."_

"_I'll pass. I can barely get good grades for myself right now and we're not even in the same grade."_

"_I know," she replied. "We have to do a group project in history and I hate group work."_

"_Be glad that you can go to school," he said. _

_When he realized that those words had come out of his mouth, he was sort of surprised. He didn't hate school or anything, but he had never enjoyed it. Like most teenagers, he much preferred having fun somewhere else with his friends. Now that he didn't have the choice to have his normal life anymore, it was exactly what he wanted._

"_I am, but the teacher picked the groups and mine is a disaster."_

"_What's your topic?"_

"_Pearl Harbour."_

"_Oh."_

"_How are you feeling today?"_

"_Tired."_

"_I can go if you'd rather just sleep," she offered. "I don't have to –"_

"_Stay," he said. "I miss talking to people my age who aren't also dying."_

"_You're not dying."_

"_Technically, I sort of am."_

"_Well, you're not going to die." _

"_I didn't say that."_

"_Good."_

* * *

"What is V.A.T.E.R. syndrome?" Sofia asked her sister later that night.

They had all kept Adler company at some point that day, but now that his family was at the hospital with him, they had left. As much as they wished that they could do more for him, there really wasn't much that they could do. For now the sisters were quizzing each other while their moms and Sebastian made dinner for everyone.

"Has anyone talked to Genevieve or Gavin?" Arizona wondered aloud. "I meant to stop by and see if they needed anything, but I never got the chance."

"I did," Callie said. "I offered to help with anything they needed. Meals, laundry...the usual. I know Adler's an adult, but they're still his parents and the worrying is never going to stop."

"Exactly."

"V.A.T.E.R. syndrome," Sofia repeated. "Go."

"Ummm..." she responded.

"I know you know that one," Callie replied.

"I know I do, too," she said. "But maybe if everyone wasn't talking about five different things at once, I could think."

"I seem to be doing okay," Sofia told her.

They were taking turns. Sofia would read Faith a question about something that she may see on her intern test, and then Faith would read Sofia a case that she may be asked about during her boards. They both wanted to live up to Callie's legacy of testing excellence, so why not team up to do so?

"It's characterized by abnormalities of the vertebrae, anus, trachea, esophagus, -" Sebastian started.

"Stop," Faith cut in. "Who's the one who needs to study?"

"I might not be a surgeon, but I still know things," he replied. "Sorry."

"I would have gotten it."

"I didn't say you wouldn't have."

"You kind of sounded like it."

"Relax," Sofia smiled. "You'll do fine. I mean, you'll only be able to study with me for a little longer before I have to go back, but you'll do fine. You have Madre's cards."

"I know," she agreed.

"I'm more worried about you, Sofia," Arizona said.

"What? Why?"

"You act like you've got a perfect score already," she explained. "Just because Seattle Grace Mercy West wants you doesn't mean –"

"I'm still studying," she replied. "Worry about Faith. She's the intern who's in the middle of planning a wedding."

"She has the cards," Callie said. "She will be fine. So will you. You're our children."

"Please don't give them a false sense of confidence," Arizona told her. "I know they can do it, too. They're smart and they work and study hard. I'm not thinking that they won't do well, but I don't want to tell them they're going to ace –"

"We know it's not second grade math," Sofia said. "We know it's hard. We'll still do fine. And then I'll get to come home, Faith can get married and get interns of her own...it'll be good. Don't worry so much."

* * *

**Don't worry; the next chapter will skip ahead a little bit. The wedding, and the rest of the story, will come along soon. I just have establish things with these first few chapters before things move on more.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Two More Weeks

The next few months were busy ones for Faith. She was grateful to have passed her intern exam, to have interns of her own, to have her sister back in Seattle, and to have her wedding day coming up, but work and wedding planning had been taking up most of her time lately. She knew that she would soon adapt to the demands of her new position, but it hadn't quite happened just yet.

Still, she woke up in a great mood one day at the end of July. It marked the tenth anniversary of her fiancé's second heart transplant. She knew that he felt weird about celebrating the day because of what it meant for another family, but she couldn't possibly just act like it was any other day. It was a day that had made all of the days since possible.

"Can you please not make a big deal out of today?" Sebastian asked as he came into the kitchen where she was already eating breakfast.

"Well, there's no surprise party or anything," she joked.

"Really," he said. "It's just another day."

Faith did understand his hesitation about allowing himself to be happy on the anniversary of a day where the person who was able to save his life lost theirs. In a way, she felt a similar feeling whenever the anniversary of her own transplant came around again. However, she just didn't completely see it the same way that he did. She had let go of some of the guilt that he continued to feel even if he knew better.

"Maybe it's because I know Michael's family," she told him. "But there's a difference between celebrating because someone died and celebrating the fact that you're still living."

"You're stubborn," he said as he gave her a kiss.

"And you know I'm right," she smiled. "I, for one, am very, very happy that you're still here."

"I have an appointment with Cristina today."

Neither of them purposely meant to schedule it for the anniversary date. That was just the way that it had worked out. While he may not have liked making a big deal out of the day, he did have to admit that he was excited to be going to another appointment without any concerns. Having to have a second transplant at such a young age had been scary, but he was still doing just fine with his second donor heart.

"I know," she said. "No issues, right?"

"Don't you think I'd tell you if I thought there were any?" he asked.

"My parents always ask me," she said. "Maybe it's a doctor thing."

"And you get annoyed when your parents ask you," he pointed out.

"I try not to ask you every time," she justified. "It's just that we're getting married in two weeks. I'm thrilled about that, and I'd be even more thrilled to know that my groom is still doing well."

He smiled.

"Well, I am," he replied. "Adler really needs a heart, though. He can't wait much longer, can he?"

"Not really," she said.

* * *

When he had a few minutes after his appointment, Sebastian went to stop and see Adler. He and Faith may have been busy lately, but they made time for him every day. It was obvious that he was depressed and they wanted him to know that he still had so much to live for.

He was asleep that afternoon, but both of his parents were there with him. The daily updates that they gave now were less than encouraging.

"It's still not too late," he told them. "A heart could come at the last minute and everything could turn back around."

"But it's hard to sit here and have to wait for that," Gavin said. "I know you know that, but it is. When Adler was born, we knew that the trial was a longshot and that gave him all of this time. It kind of feels like too much to ask for yet another miracle."

"I got my second donor heart ten years ago today," he replied. "It happens."

"Hopefully it'll happen soon."

"I almost feel like Faith and I shouldn't have gone away while he was still having really good days."

They had considered canceling their pre-wedding trip when Adler still had not received his new heart before they left. However, he had been insistent that they go and have a good time. They did, but now they felt guilty for missing some of the better time that Adler had seemed to have.

"Don't," Genevieve said. "He told you to go,"

"We still could have said no."

Just then, his friend opened up his eyes. He had heard the last little part of the conversation.

"You went and I didn't die while you were gone," he said. "That's a good thing."

"Stop acting like you're going to die at all."

Twenty-nine months was a long time to live with a failing heart. Adler had come to terms with the fact that his match just might not come. Of course, he still wanted it to, but he also didn't know how much longer he could live the way that he was. It was draining him of all of his energy, both physically and emotionally.

"Cause you were so happy when you were waiting for a second heart," he responded.

"I know I wasn't," he nodded. "Listen. Just don't give up completely. Not yet."

"I won't."

"Good."

"You are going to need a new best man, though."

"I'll ask Max," he finally agreed. "But that doesn't mean anything. It just means that you can't be there. It doesn't mean that we don't want you to be a part of it all."

"I know."

* * *

"English, please?" Sebastian asked as he joined Faith and Sofia at their lunch table.

Now that Sofia was officially back in Seattle, Faith's fiancé found himself in the middle of many sisterly chats these days. This time he had walked up to hear the two discussing Faith's interns. He had figured this out, even though he didn't know exactly what they were saying, because they were speaking Spanish to avoid having everyone hear what they were talking about.

Faith looked around. None of them appeared to be in the room, so she could complain about them all she wanted. She really tried not to speak badly of people who were now in the position that she had been in not long ago, but she couldn't help it sometimes. Some of her interns just asked really silly questions.

"One of them actually asked me what I thought when Mom's trial was finally a success," she explained. "I was in preschool. I had no idea what it meant until I was older. How was I supposed to feel? Really?"

He laughed.

"How was your appointment?"

"Fine."

"Good. Have you checked on Adler today?" she asked. "I'm working with Bailey, so I haven't gotten a chance yet."

"I just came from his room," he nodded. "Genevieve and Gavin are there right now, so I didn't stay long. He seems about the same today."

"Oh."

"He told me to pick a new best man again," he added. "And I agreed."

"It's not because you don't want him to be your best man," she told him. "You know that. It's because he can't be at the wedding. It's okay to have a stand-in, too. We'll make sure that we come here and see Adler. He'll be a part of it, Seb. It's nobody's fault that this is how it is."

"I know."

"But I'm still sorry."

"Me too."

"It's just bad timing," she said. "Part of me says that we should have gotten married as soon as possible, knowing that he was on the list for a transplant."

"But there was no way to know that he wouldn't have had it by now," Sofia rationalized. "You couldn't possibly plan around that."

"True."

"I'm going to ask Max," Sebastian told his future wife.

"Okay. He'll do it."

"How sad is it that the next time I'll see him will be at Declan's party, and I'm asking him to be my best man because my best man can't. Happy first birthday, Declan."

"Sad," she said. "But it'll still be a good party. Declan'll love it and that's what matters."

* * *

Declan wasn't turning one for a few days still, but his party was the next day. Sebastian decided to arrive early so that he could ask Maxwell to be his new best man before the party really started. He didn't want to ruin the mood on Declan's day.

When he got there, the birthday boy was standing in the kitchen in only his diaper as Chelsea talked to him about each of the cookies she was finishing up for his bug themed party.

"Bugs?" he questioned. "Really?"

Ever since Declan had learned how to walk, he had been interested in exploring outdoors. In typical little boy style, he loved to get dirty and see what he could find out there. Therefore, a bug theme seemed to be the only one that would fit for the day.

"Really," Chelsea said. "He loves them. Right, Declan?"

"Hi," the little boy simply said.

"Hi!" Sebastian smiled. "Where are your clothes, Birthday Boy? Are you too hot for them right now?"

It was a gorgeous day that day, but it was also very, very warm. He didn't exactly blame the little guy for wanting to wear only his diaper. Plus, this meant that Chelsea could hand him bites of his treats without worrying about him getting his outfit all messy before the party even started.

He nodded.

"Can you say 'yes?'" Chelsea asked. "Use your words, Bud."

"No," he replied.

"No, you don't want to use your words?" Sebastian laughed. "Where's your daddy?"

"He's in the living room," Chelsea replied.

Declan followed Sebastian in to the living room where they both found Maxwell blowing up a bunch of multi-coloured balloons.

"Hey," he said. "You're early."

"I know," he agreed. "I have a favour to ask you."

"Best man?" he figured by the expression on his friend's face.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Are you sure?" he questioned.

Of course, he was honoured to be asked. Even if Adler had been Sebastian's first choice, the fact that he was also a consideration meant a lot. While Maxwell had known of Sebastian for most of his life, the two hadn't really become very close until Sebastian and Faith had been dating for a while. Now, just like the rest of the family, they spent a lot of time together.

"Adler insists and he can't be there, so I guess I get two best men."

"If it's okay with you and Adler, I'd be glad to," he told him.

"Thanks."

"No," Declan said.

"No?" his daddy laughed. "Yes! What do you say we go put on your party outfit? Everybody should be here soon. Auntie Sofia texted to tell me that she and Faith are both going to be late because they have a surgery, but everyone else is coming in less than an hour."

"Mama?" he asked.

"Mommy lives here, Crazy Boy! C'mon."

* * *

Declan's party was so much fun. They kept it low-key, with only family and a few close friends attending, because the birthday boy was only a year old. This didn't stop him from having a blast, though. He clearly loved being the center of attention.

At one point, he requested that Arizona sit him in her lap while everyone ate the dessert of birthday cake and cookies. The rest of his aunt's family had been around from day one, so he saw them as family as well. This was how Maxwell had grown up, so it was nice to see that his son now had just as much fun with them as he had when he was young.

"So, are birthdays the best?" Arizona asked the boy.

"Yeah," he said.

"Do you want one every year for your whole life?" Mark wondered.

"Yeah."

He was holding a plush basketball toy that Sofia had given him. He seemed to really like it, and this was confirmed for sure when it went straight into his mouth. This was a habit that his parents knew they'd have to break someday, but they weren't looking forward to it at all.

"Does that taste good?" Callie laughed. "There's food out, but you want the stuffed toy."

"Well, he already had his cake. Right, Declan?" her wife responded.

He took the toy out of his mouth and reached for Arizona's cookie instead. He knew it wasn't his, but he looked up at her with an adorable grin on his face. He also knew that she would let him have it.

"Go ahead," she said.

"Declan, that's not nice," Chelsea told her son. "That wasn't yours."

"You're the birthday boy," Arizona replied. "It's okay today. What does that cookie look like?"

She was looking for the word "bug," but that wasn't the response she got. Declan took a messy bite out of it before crumbling most the remaining piece all over both of them. After that, he simply returned to his fascination with the toy in his other hand.

"Ball," he said.

"That is a ball," she agreed. "You know so many words for such a little guy. Is your ball your favourite?"

He nodded.

"Little boy toys are so much fun," she said. "When Auntie Sofia and Faith were little, they mostly played with baby dolls and princesses."

"No," Declan laughed.

"Princesses aren't your thing?" Faith asked. "Tell my moms that they're more than welcome to enjoy you until they have lots of grandbabies to spoil."

"Grandbabies? As in multiple?" Sofia questioned. "Don't put ideas into their heads, please."

"Oh, we both love kids," she replied. "Right now may not be the time, but you know it'll happen."

"Well, yeah."

"I still can't really believe we're getting married in two more weeks," Sebastian said.

"I know!" Faith exclaimed.

Declan giggled.

"Are you excited, too?" Chelsea asked him. "Do you like weddings? We'll see, huh?"

"You'll be so cute," Lexie smiled.


	5. Something Blue

Faith had been in that room many, many times. Yet, something seemed different about it on that particular night. She was sitting cross-legged in her childhood bedroom, but there was nothing childish about the event that was about to take place. She found herself looking around and simply remembering the times before now. Of course, the room had been redecorated since she was a little girl, but she could still picture it the way it had been then, too. She would begin a whole new phase of her life tomorrow, so it only seemed fitting for her to spend this one last night there.

She heard her mothers knocking on the door. She was going to be staying the night because it had been decided that Sebastian would get ready at the house that they now owned together. She believed that there was something extra perfect about preparing for her wedding day in her parents' house, and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Come in," she said.

"I made cookies," Arizona announced, offering her the plate with two chocolate chip treats on it.

"Really?" she laughed. "I come back home for one night and you bake me cookies?"

Still, she took the plate and the glass of milk that came with it. Especially as she had grown older, she was very careful about her diet now. If she had a fully functioning donor heart, she was going to do everything she could to make sure that she took excellent care of it. Even so, she had always loved chocolate, and most things were just fine in moderation. She wasn't about to say no to sweets all of the time.

"They're really for a patient of mine who can tolerate them again," she explained. "It's been months and months since he could have junk food, so I made these for him. But I saved some for you, too."

"Thanks," she smiled as she took the first bite out of one of them.

"So are you nervous yet?"

"Well, don't ask her that!" Callie replied. "Then she'll get nervous."

Faith laughed.

"I'm not nervous," she said. "Why would I be? Seb and I have been living together already. It's not like the way we do anything will change. I'm sure I'll get a case of nerves in the morning just because I'm so excited, but I'm not freaking out right now."

"Good," Arizona smiled as she and her wife sat on the edge of the bed.

"Why did you keep this the same?" she asked of her bedroom. "I know that you kept Sof's room that way because she used to come home and visit, but I live ten minutes away."

"We just wanted you to know that you always have a place here," Arizona explained. "Not that we expect you to need it, but it's yours. We come in here and work sometimes, but why do we need to change it?"

"In other words, you're still dealing with the fact that I'm not seventeen anymore."

"That might be it, too," Callie agreed.

"Just because I'm getting married doesn't mean that we won't be just as close. We still work together. We see each other every day."

"We know," Arizona said. "It's a mom thing, though."

"Any advice?" she asked.

"Wedding advice?" her mom questioned.

"Marriage advice," Callie corrected. "She knows how to walk down an aisle and say 'I do.' That's the easiest part."

"True."

"You should know by now that life isn't all great," Callie told her. "You'll have to compromise and work at it. The phase of everything being just fine will be just a phase, even if you do love him the way that you should. You'll disagree on things, you'll have fights...you just will. The key is remembering why you got married in the first place. As long as that love is still there, work at everything else. Don't throw in the towel unless you absolutely should. Decide that your relationship is more important that anything. Work, finances...anything. Commit to that. You and Seb have something real. It wouldn't have lasted ten years if it wasn't. Just don't forget that."

"And date nights," Arizona added. "It might seem weird because it's just the two of you and technically most nights could be date nights, but I wish we would have done those more often before we really started making a point of them when you were little. Date nights are good. Really spend time with each other."

Sofia arrived. She would be staying there that night as well. She now had her own place, but she just didn't want to have to get up even earlier in the morning just to drive to Callie and Arizona's to get ready with them. She might as well just spend the night.

"I think that guy from the lab has a thing for me," she said. "Jeff. He ran all my labs really, really quickly tonight. I barely had to wait."

"No, he's just good at his job," Faith explained. "He's always that good. But that guy whose name I can never remember in Radiology definitely thinks you're hot."

"Which one?" she asked. "Because there's the hot one and the one who will never move out of his parents' basement. They're both extra nice to me."

"Hot one," she confirmed.

"Thank God," she said. "Are you freaking out yet?"

"No," she smiled. "I'm really not."

"Well, good."

* * *

Sebastian made a point of spending some of his night with Adler. He had already been in to check on him once that day, but he knew that his friend was feeling bad about having to miss the wedding. He still had not received a new heart, and there was absolutely no way that he would have been able to go right now. Of course, Sebastian wasn't happy about this, but he didn't want Adler to feel as though he had let him down.

"Don't worry about it," he told him. "Adler, of all of the things for you to be thinking about right now, it really shouldn't be our wedding. I wish you could be there, but we'll still get married. That's the key, isn't it?"

"I'm still sending my family," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't argue with me."

Adler was stubborn to begin with, but he had become even more insistent now. If he didn't get a heart, he at least wanted things to go according to his wishes now. It may have been morbid, but it was his reality.

"I'm not," he replied. "But are you sure you want to be alone all day?"

"It's not all day. You're getting married at ten and there's a huge break between the ceremony and the reception. They'll come then. They deserve a break, too."

"Okay," he smiled. "Faith and I'll stop by, too."

"Don't you have pictures and a bunch of other bride and groom things to do then?"

"We want you to be a part of our day," he said. "This wasn't what we pictured, but we still want you to be part of it."

"Thanks."

"Of course," he said.

Adler was getting tired again, so Sebastian didn't stay long. He just wanted him to know of their plans for the next day. It may not have been a typical thing to do, but they just had to make sure that they saw him. They didn't want him to think that they could simply carry on without him because that wasn't the case.

* * *

"Put your head up!" Sofia told her sister for the fourth time the next morning.

She was trying to do Faith's hair, but the bride couldn't resist texting back and forth with her groom. She kept accidently looking down at her phone which was making it difficult for Sofia.

"Sorry," Faith quietly replied.

"You're a surgeon and you can't figure out how to text without moving your head?"

"Leave her be," Arizona said. "Faith, are you sure you don't want more to eat? You had a banana. How is that enough? I know it's enough to take your meds. with, but –"

"What happened to 'leave her be?'" Callie asked.

"I want to eat, but I don't have an appetite," Faith explained. "I'm too excited to eat."

"I'll make you some toast," she decided. "Just try it?"

Callie couldn't help but laugh. On their wedding day, Arizona had been composed enough to operate. Yet, she seemed just as jittery as Faith today. She just wanted this day to be everything that Faith had ever wished for, but it was funny to see both of them so excitable while she and Sofia were still pretty calm. They were excited too, but they weren't letting it show as much yet.

"Fine," Faith agreed.

"What do I get?" Sofia asked.

"Is it your wedding day?" Faith responded.

"No," she replied. "But I'm hungry."

"What do you want?" Arizona asked.

"A cheese omelette would be great," she decided. "Please?"

"Fine."

Faith received another text from Sebastian. This time she tried to only let her eyes wander down, but her head still moved just a little. Sofia started laughing. Apparently she was just going to have to work with this.

"You'll see him in a few hours," she smiled.

"I know," she replied. "I'll be married in a few hours. Can you believe it?!"

"Not really," she answered. "You're my little sister. You're still a kid in my mind."

"Oh!" she exclaimed as she suddenly remembered something that she had wanted to do.

"What's wrong?" Callie questioned.

"Can you go get my bouquet?" she asked. "I need to send Matilda and Roger a picture of it."

Matilda and Roger were Faith's donor- Michael's - parents. Even though UNOS rules stated that initial contact had to be made only through letters, the two families had met eventually. Michael's mom and dad were going to be attending the big day today, and Faith was happy about that. They clearly meant a lot to her.

However, what they didn't know yet was that something of Michael's had been the inspiration for the weddings entire "something blue" theme. The ribbon that Faith had tied around her bouquet was originally from one of their son's toys. That had been the starting point that had led them to stick with a royal blue, white, and silver colour scheme.

"Why?" Sofia wondered.

"They don't know that I incorporated the ribbon into it," she explained. "I thought it was a nice way to honour him, but I don't want them to be caught off guard when they see it."

"Do you think they'd notice?"

"It belonged to their dead child," she said. "I'm sure that, even now, they have every inch of every item he ever owned memorized. Plus, it's got the silver in there, too. It's a little bit more distinctive than just any ribbon."

"I guess."

* * *

_Callie and Arizona had been nervous about today. As much as they wanted to meet this little hero's parents, and get a chance to thank them for their unbelievable generosity in person, they also figured that it might be a tough meeting. Faith was living – and thriving – but they didn't have their son. Even if it had been a few years, they would never completely stop grieving his loss. They just hoped that introducing Faith to them didn't make it worse somehow._

_However, that didn't end up being a problem. Surely they would always miss their child, but Matilda and Roger instantly fell in love with Faith. They were drawn in by her amazing personality already, even though they had only met her an hour ago._

_Faith was starting to understand Michael's story. At almost six years old, she wasn't fully able to grasp all of the feelings involved with death or grief, but she did know that Michael wasn't living anymore , and that his family was sad about that. She had also been told that they still loved him very much even if he wasn't with them physically._

_When Faith realized just how much Michael's family loved to talk about him, she began asking many questions. Arizona had almost stopped her because she wondered if this was too much for Matilda and Roger, but they told her that they were fine with talking about their son._

"_What was Michael's favourite colour?" Faith wanted to know._

"_Blue and red," Roger replied. "What's your favourite colour?"_

"_Purple and pink," she said. "My room is pink. My mommy knew I'd want that when I was still in her stomach."_

_Matilda smiled. _

"_Would you like to see Michael's room?" she questioned. _

"_Okay," she agreed._

_They all made their way up the stairs and into the blue bedroom. It was very clear to Callie and Arizona that it had been untouched since his death. In fact, there were even still toys left out on his bed that he hadn't ever gotten the chance to put away._

_Faith picked one of these – a stuffed animal dog with a blue and silver ribbon around its neck – up and began absentmindedly stroking it as if she were petting her own pup while she looked around the rest of the room._

"_Faith, can you put that back, please?" Callie requested._

"_It's okay," Matilda smiled. "Actually, it's nice to see someone enjoying his things again."_

"_He liked puppies?" Faith asked._

"_He did."_

"_Did he have one?"_

"_Nope."_

"_I have a puppy named Hershey," she said. "She's my dog. Then my sister Sofia has another dog, Libby. Both of them are at her dad's house now, though."_

"_You're such a lucky girl," Matilda told her._

"_Yep," she said. "I know."_

_They spent some more time in Michael's room and even played with a few of his toys. While it was difficult to touch some of these things – and to do so without their little boy – it didn't hurt as much as Matilda thought it would._

_When she saw that Faith hadn't put the stuffed animal down the whole time, Matilda finally decided to work up the strength to offer it to her. She clearly loved it as much as Michael had. He would want someone to have it. They had so many other things to remember him by._

"_Would you like to keep that?" she questioned._

"_Oh, no," Arizona said. "No. It's not hers."_

"_I think he'd want her to have it," she said. "We have so many other stuffed animals of his. It's alright."_

"_You're sure?"_

"_Yes."_

"_I love it," Faith smiled. "Thanks."_

* * *

"What's taking so long?" Faith asked.

The start of the ceremony hadn't even been delayed by a full ten minutes yet, but it felt like an eternity to the anxious bride. She wanted to be married right now. She couldn't wait to see Sebastian or for him to see her.

"Relax," Callie said. "Breathe. Mom went to see what's going on, you look great, this is going to be great."

"I just want to do this already."

"Enjoy it," she told her. "Don't rush through it. Just enjoy it all."

"I know."

Arizona came back.

"Sebastian had to go to the bathroom," she replied. "So he went in the house."

They were getting married on a property that the photographer owned. The reception would be somewhere else, but he and his wife rented out their backyard for weddings all of the time. Faith had always loved the idea of an outdoor ceremony, so she thought that this would be a great place for it.

"He had to go to the bathroom? Seriously?"

"Apparently," she nodded. "But no worries. Declan has decided that he'd like to join the wedding party. He's up there standing next to Daddy and doing adorable things to keep everyone entertained."

"Cute," she smiled. "But seriously? He has to pee? Now?"

* * *

Eventually the ceremony got started. The look on Sebastian's face when he saw her walking slowly toward him was just what Faith had expected it to be. In fact, it was probably even better than she had pictured in her mind. Both of her moms were also teary-eyed as they walked her down the aisle.

"You have to stop or I'll start," she said.

"Then start," Arizona decided. "We didn't think you'd live to see a first birthday. Then, when you were on the transplant list, we seriously weren't sure you'd see a third. Today's your _wedding day_. We're going to cry."

"Hi!" Declan exclaimed as soon as they made it up to the beautifully decorated archway.

"Hi, Declan," she laughed. "Thanks for joining us up here! Can I say 'hi' to Sebastian, though? We're getting married!"

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

"Who gives this bride to be married to this groom?" the minister asked.

"We do," Callie and Arizona answered.

"You look amazing," Sebastian told his soon-to-be wife as they took hold of each other's hands.

"You had to pee?" she asked.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," she said. "I think I'll still marry you."

"Good."

While they really wanted to opt for the shortest ceremony possible because they couldn't wait to be husband and wife, they had taken Callie's advice and had a bit of a longer ceremony so that they really had time to take in what was going on. It wasn't overly long and it was filled with some very touching words, so they ended up realizing that that was the way to go.

With that being said, they still couldn't wait until they could just exchange vows already.

"Ladies first," Sebastian said.

"Sebastian," she began. "You know that I didn't want us to write our own vows because I really wanted to stick with more traditional ones. But you didn't want the ''til death do us part' part in there because we probably shouldn't even be mentioning that stuff in our case. We've been through enough. The thought of death shouldn't have a place in our vows, too. Nothing about 'as long as we both shall live.' I agree. So, these are my vows to you. I, Faith Evelyn Torres, take you, Sebastian Lewis Sterling, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, forever and ever. And ever."

She had clearly only tweaked these words. It wasn't like she really wrote her own vows. This was just the way that she wanted to do it. Little did she know, he had the same sort of idea.

"I, Sebastian Lewis Sterling, take you, Faith Evelyn Torres, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and health, forsaking all others forever."

She hadn't started crying until then, but she couldn't hold back anymore. She couldn't believe that their vows matched each other's even though they really hadn't discussed it much, other than to say that they didn't want 'as long as we both shall live' or 'til death do us part' in them."

After that, rings were exchanged and they sealed their union with a kiss.

"We're really, really, really married!" she told him.

"Do you think our moms will stop crying at some point?" he asked as they made their way back down the aisle.

"Our moms? What about me?!"

He gave her another kiss.

"I love you, Faith Torres."

"I love you, too. You're my husband."

"You're my wife."

"You're so lucky, huh?" she joked.

* * *

As promised, they stopped by the hospital to see Adler before the reception. He was awake and seemingly having an okay day. His family was there and he had been watching something on TV with them when the newlyweds arrived.

"Hey!" he cheered. "So nobody got cold feet!"

"Nope," Faith laughed.

"Congrats," he smiled.

"Thanks," Sebastian replied. "How stunningly beautiful is my wife?"

"I thought husbands weren't supposed to like other men admitting that their wives are stunning?" Faith asked.

"Today I get to brag," he explained. "You're all mine and I want every other man in Seattle to be very, very jealous."

"You look great," Adler told Faith.

"Thank you."

"Are you sure you couldn't have done better than him?" he teased.

"Very," Faith nodded. "He's great."

"You two are so sweet," Genevieve commented.

* * *

"Heels are evil," Faith complained later into the day.

She and Sebastian had actually managed to eat most of their dinner, unlike most newly married couples on their wedding days, but now they were making the rounds to talk to each guest before all of the dancing started. Already, Faith wasn't impressed with her choice of fancy footwear.

"So take them off," Sebastian said. "Who cares?"

She removed them just as he said that. She certainly wasn't going to be the type of bride who suffered through it. She wanted to be herself and be comfortable.

"Sofia!" she called to her sister.

"What?" she asked as she came over.

"Do something with these," she told her as she handed the shoes over.

"Already?"

"Yes."

Sebastian laughed. Declan had been going strong all day. He had been in a good mood and things had gone well. However, he was now fast asleep in his nana's arms.

"This was too much for him, huh?"

"One of Chelsea's friends is coming to pick him up," Mark explained. "They knew he would never make it the whole time."

"Well, no," Faith said. "He's still so little."

"But he did so well," Chelsea pointed out. "Other than the fact that he _had _to be up there with Max during the ceremony."

"Sorry about that," the new best man added.

"It was precious," Faith smiled. "Don't be sorry."

They ended that brief exchange when they saw that all four of their parents were talking to Matilda and Roger. They hadn't met Wren and Darren yet, but they wanted to.

"Thank you so much for coming," Faith said, giving Matilda a big hug. "I know things like this are so bittersweet for you, but it means a lot."

"You're welcome," she smiled. "Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"That was really the ribbon from the dog? Around your bouquet?"

"I thought Michael deserved to be a part of this," she nodded.

"I still can't believe you're married," she said.

"You can't?" Arizona asked.

"I have no idea how we're ever going to get used to having a married kid," Callie added.

"Nothing's all that different," Faith laughed. "We'll live in the same place and –"

"But you're _married!_"

"I love it," she smiled.


	6. DNR

**Thank you again for all of the love that you have showed this story. I'm so glad that you seem to be enjoying it.**

* * *

Sebastian woke up next to his wife in an on-call room just over six weeks later. He could have spent the night at home, but he had opted not to. He and Faith were still newlyweds and, for some reason, it just felt strange to go to bed without her there. Plus, by not going home, he was able to give Adler's family a much needed break. He spent the night between the on-call room and Adler's hospital room, trying to maximize the precious time spent with both his wife and his best friend.

Now he had been startled out of his slumber, though. It took him a minute to realize that the noise he had just heard was Faith's pager. It had gone off once, then twice, then three times right in a row.

"Faith, get up," he said.

He wanted to be gentle about it, but he still needed to make sure that she woke up. Those pages could have been for any number of very important reasons. In fact, as he checked his watch, he realized that he had been asleep for the last three hours. Unless she had gotten up without him knowing – which was unlikely considering the way that she was laying wrapped up in his arms – she hadn't actually worked very much during the night shift. Hopefully it had been a slow night and she hadn't slept through any pages.

"Later," she mumbled. "Ten more minutes."

He laughed as he kissed her lips. He wasn't really a morning person either, but her distaste for the time of day was extreme. He wondered how she handled so many shifts like this, but he knew that she put up with the lack of sleep because she loved what she did so much. It was worth it, she figured.

"How about now?" he replied. "Somebody's been paging you."

"Been?"

"Three times," he said.

"Oh, crap!" she exclaimed, sitting up and reaching for her pager.

"Yeah."

"It's just Sofia," she said as she checked it. "I'm working with her this morning and she wants to know where I am. I hate double shifts."

"Go save the lives of children," he encouraged. "I'm sure it'll help."

"I hope," she replied. "How's Adler?"

"No news is good news," he answered.

"No," she said. _"UNOS_ news is good news. UNOS."

"It's been two-and-a-half years," he pointed out. "He's been hospitalized for four months and he's getting worse and worse. I know that a heart could still come, but how much worse can he get at this point? I was thinking that weeks ago. He doesn't have time left. If he's going to get the heart and actually be strong enough to go into surgery to get the heart, it needs to happen –"

"Today, basically," she agreed.

"Exactly. There was a point last night where I almost called Genevieve and told her that it was time for her to come. Just as I was about to, he came around again and made me promise not to. I figured that that was a good sign. If they needed to be there, he'd know it, right?"

"I think so. That's what they say."

"Are you going to answer that page?" he asked.

She gave him a kiss.

"Page me later," she said, giving him a lingering kiss just before she got up. "And bring coffee."

"Will do," he agreed. "I like being newlyweds. Being newlyweds is nice."

* * *

"Has anyone seen Faith?" Sofia asked Callie, Arizona, and Lexie in the meantime. "I paged her three times, and she's not here yet."

"Did you page her 911?" Callie questioned.

"No," she told her. "It isn't an emergency."

"Then give her a minute," Arizona said.

"She was on call all night," Lexie added. "Do you come running when you've barely slept?"

"What happened to 'answer every page at a run?'"

Sofia may have done her residency in Los Angeles, but she still knew Dr. Bailey's rules well. They had been used in an attempt to keep interns in line for many years, and now that Miranda was Chief, they applied to everyone in the hospital.

"You're her sister," Callie explained. "She has a hard time taking you seriously as her boss."

"I'm her older sister," she said. "Haven't I always been her boss?"

"You like to think so," Arizona laughed.

Lexie's phone went off. On the days that Mark was working, she could usually get through the day without too many interruptions. It wasn't like retirement had left him with nothing to do. He still worked, but he simply didn't operate now. However, the end of the week was different. On his days with Declan, Grandpa was frequently sending Nana pictures of what they were up to.

"I hate my job," she said as she saw the latest one of the very sleepy little man who had just arrived for the day.

"No, you hate that you're here and Mark's with that adorable grandson of yours," Arizona smiled as Lexie showed her.

"True," she said. "But I can't wait for retirement."

"By the time you retire, Declan will most likely be –" Sofia started to point out.

"Okay, so he won't exactly be a baby anymore," she replied. "Don't mention that. It's not helping."

"He'll be there when you get home," she smiled. "Seriously, where is my sister?"

"She's a newlywed," Lexie said. "I heard Sebastian was here all night, too. Give her a minute."

"Remind me to never go in an on-call room again," Arizona responded.

Faith rounded the corner and walked up to them. Even though she and Sebastian hadn't taken any romantic time to themselves since she had woken up, she could tell that everyone there had already assumed that they had.

"We were talking about Adler," she clarified.

"Okay then," Sofia smiled. "If that's –"

"You're my moms and I'm your younger sister," she told Callie, Arizona, and Sofia. "And you're...Lexie," she had to add. "None of you are supposed to think of me that way. What happened to finding it so hard to believe that I'm old enough to be married? Let's go back to that. And let's work. What do you have?"

"Do you want to scrub in on my exploratory surgery?" Sofia wondered. "Okay, you don't really get a choice. But still. Who knows what we could find? The kid has been in the E.R. six different times in the last three days. Someone finally put me on the case. We're going to find something."

Callie laughed. Sometimes Sofia seemed to forget that she was still only a Fellow. Sure, she was a great doctor, but her training wasn't complete just yet.

"Anything to do with Card-"

"No," she told her.

"Okay," she said. "It's still worthwhile. I like a little medical mystery."

"Let me know if you need me," Arizona said. "Have I seen the patient yet?"

"Your name isn't on the chart," Sofia told her. "Page your interns, Faith."

"So, what are this kid's symptoms?" she asked as she followed her sister towards the patient's room.

"Abdominal pain, fever –"

* * *

The sisters had just finished up with their patient when Sebastian paged Faith to his office. She went thinking that he had one thing in mind, but she wasn't expecting what actually happened.

"Your office?" she asked as she closed the door. "Usually we don't do anything in here, but-"

"Faith..."

"And I'm kind of out of energy. Sofia and I almost did exploratory surgery on a five year old. Turns out that all he needed was an appy. Five other doctors failed to notice that, and one even passed him off for exploratory surgery. Luckily we figured it out in time, but holy crap! I wouldn't be too happy if I were those parents. I know that appendicitis isn't exactly common at that age, but –"

"Faith, can I talk?" he stopped her.

"You paged me to talk?"

Suddenly she put two and two together. This wasn't going to be any ordinary chat. The coffee that she had requested earlier wasn't there either. This wasn't normal.

Sebastian had been regularly checking on Adler. Faith realized that there had to be some really, really bad news now. Things hadn't been looking good for weeks, but all indications led her to believe that they seemed especially grim at this current moment. She was regretting rambling on about her patient more and more with each passing second.

"What? Just say it, Seb."

"He's talking about signing a D.N.R."

"But –"

She understood. He had been waiting for a new heart for two-and-a-half years. That was a long time to hold out hope for. He had now been at the very top of the list for weeks and that hadn't helped him out yet. He was getting sicker and sicker. It wasn't that he wanted to die, but he just didn't want to prolong his suffering anymore. If his heart happened to stop, he didn't want doctors deciding to give him another chance at life, when the only thing that could truly help him to live longer had yet to come. As a doctor, she knew exactly why he would want to sign that form.

As his friend, she couldn't stomach the thought of standing by and letting him. She didn't have a choice and she knew that, but she didn't want to see her friend die. She wasn't as ready as he was to admit that they had truly done everything that they could.

"Do you blame him? I know a heart could come, but it hasn't. And he's waited well over two years. He's exhausted."

"No, but it's Adler."

"Faith, this isn't about us."

He agreed with her, but this was Adler's decision. The least that they could do at this point was respect it.

"I know," she said, trying not to let any tears fall yet.

"And I don't think he's giving up."

* * *

Faith got paged away again, so they couldn't talk about it any further. However, she was able to stop by Adler's room towards the end of her shift. He still hadn't signed the D.N.R. form, but he was clearly considering it when she walked in.

"You're going to tell me not to," he guessed.

"No," she said. "That's not my decision. Just please don't sign that and decide that it's best to die."

"I won't," he promised. "I've been telling my mom that all day. I'll keep waiting for a heart. I just don't want to be 'saved' if there's still no heart for me."

"Okay."

"If I sign this and a heart does come...?"

"You can reverse your decision if you want," she assured him.

"Good."

"I'm pretty sure everyone's been asking you if you're sure, but I can't help it. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he replied. "If a heart comes in time, great. If not, I don't think I can handle going through much more to just keep waiting. I got to celebrate one more birthday, which was good, but I don't want to suffer until my next. I just don't."

Knowing that it could very well be his last, everyone had thrown Adler the biggest birthday celebration that they possibly could from a hospital room. At first, he thought that this was stupid. It seemed to be just a reminder of the actual birthday fun that he was missing. Now that he had gotten even worse, he had a different opinion, though. He was now glad that it had created one more memory for his family and friends. Sure, maybe it wasn't the happiest of days, but it hadn't been bad either.

"Don't give up, though. Please. If you die tomorrow because you felt like you could 'let go,' I'll –"

"You'll what? Kill me?" he smiled. "Faith, I'm not using this as a way to give in. Really. I just know that my heart can only last me so long and I don't want to be brought back over and over and over again if there's no hope for a decent life anymore. Unless you have a heart, spare me the C.P.R."

"Okay," she said.

"Are you going to freak out if I sign this right now?"

"It's not within my –"

"I'm not talking about as a doctor."

"As your friend, I care about you enough to do what you want," she said. "Even though I'm going to want to break out those paddles."

"I still want a heart, Faith."

"I know."

* * *

Even though Adler signed the form right there with Faith in the room, it actually took time for some people to hear about it. Arizona and Callie had both been in surgery at the time. Callie had just scrubbed out. She thought that she and her wife were going to head home, but she found her reviewing test results instead.

"What are you –?"

"Yes, these are Adler's," she confirmed. "Yes, I've kept copies this whole time. He was my miracle case and now he signed a D.N.R. and there's still no heart for him."

Callie sat down. She had gotten pretty good at giving Arizona talks like this one all of those years ago. Apparently she would be doing it again.

"You did an amazing thing for Adler," she told her. "I don't have to tell you that many H.L.H.S. patients die as babies. Adler's been to college. College, Arizona. You managed to give him enough time with that damaged heart that he could graduate from college. He's made great friends, he's gone on trips...he's done well. He was your first success with the trial. At the time, there was no way for you to know what his life expectancy would be. Your goal was to give him a life that he could live well, with less time in the hospital. You did that. You did good things."

"Tell that to Adler. Tell that to his family."

"Arizona, they don't blame you. They knew that you weren't curing H.L.H.S. There still is no absolute cure. They weren't expecting that. If that would have been a possibility, that would have been great, but your focus was better treatment of it."

"We still have Faith."

"Because of her transplant, not because the heart that she was born with still works."

"I know."

"Then why are you obsessing over old scans?"

"I saved him once. I can't help but feel like I should do it again. I don't care if he's not a child anymore."

She gave her a kiss.

"You are a great doctor, Arizona Robbins."

"Thank you," she said. "I needed to hear that."

"How many patients did you save today?"

"Three."

"See?"

"I feel like we should at least go see him," she said. "I don't want him to stop fighting. UNOS could –"

"Let's go."


	7. The Loss

"_Okay, Faith. Now it's your turn," Arizona said._

_Sofia's class had been assigned a little project about what career they wanted when they got older. Of course, the purpose of it wasn't so much to get them to really think hard about this - since they had plenty of time to decide - but more to encourage them to speak in front of small groups and to teach them how to write simple speeches. She was nervous the night before, so her family had all gathered at Mommy and Madre's to help her rehearse a little. _

_Much to Callie's relief, Sofia had not seemed to fully inherit her fear of public speaking. After a few times practicing in front of her parents and siblings, she excitedly declared that she was going to do "more than awesome."_

_Now her sister wanted a turn. She may have only been in first grade, but she was confident that she knew where she was headed. Maxwell could care less about career plans at his age, but both Sofia and Faith already had it figured out. Of course, they were following in the footsteps of their parents, so that was probably why._

"_What are you going to be when you grow up?" Callie asked._

"_I'm going to fix lots of hearts," she said._

"_No, Faith," Sofia stopped her. "You have to start like this. 'When I grow up, I want to be a...'. Then you give three reasons. More if you have more. That's how you do a speech."_

"_When I grow up, I want to be a heart doctor because they make people get better."_

"_Why else?" Sofia asked._

"_That's it," she said. "I just want to make all the people with the bad hearts get better ones. I don't have three reasons. Not everything has to be your way, Sofia."_

"_It's my teacher's way and it's how you do it if you're smart."_

"_I'm already smart," she said. _

"_Do you want to be a doctor because you get a lab coat with your name on it and people call you 'Doctor?'" she suggested._

"_Sure."_

"_Do you want to work with our moms?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Then that's three reasons. See?"_

"_But you made two of them," she told her. "I just want to make hearts better."_

"_Just the H.L.H.S. ones?" Lexie inquired._

"_All of them."_

"_You're going to be a little Cristina," Mark told her. "I can see it now."_

"_Nope."_

"_Teddy?"_

"_No, I'm me, and I'm going to be me and a heart doctor. A surgeon."_

"_There are other kinds of doctors, too," Callie pointed out._

"_Hearts are the best."_

* * *

"Our daughters are running a skills lab on the F.E.T. and Robbins procedures right now," Callie told Arizona.

Two weeks had passed since the sisters had gotten a chance to work together, but Faith wanted to teach the interns a little more about the two procedures that her mother was now known for and she had requested that her sister help her out. Arizona wasn't helping only because she wasn't supposed to be working that day. She had ended up coming in anyway, but neither of them knew that yet.

"And you're not watching?" she asked.

"I've been told I'm not allowed," she replied, giving her a kiss. "And I'm guessing you aren't either."

"If you aren't, I would assume that I'm definitely not," she agreed.

"No," she said. "But what are you doing here? It's your day off. I know you don't have wedding planning to help with anymore, but there has to be something else that you could do."

"There is," Arizona said. "But I can be here, too."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Adler, would it?"

He was still holding on, but a heart just hadn't come yet. He was hardly ever conscious anymore, and his other organs were now causing some major problems as a result of his current state. Despite Teddy's best efforts, it wouldn't be long now. They had been saying that for weeks, but it was becoming more and more real as Adler's body continued to fail him.

"I just feel like I should at least be here," Arizona said. "He was my miracle case. I'm known for...him. For other things too, but my biggest contribution to medicine was the procedure that saved his life once."

"And gave him a better quality of life for all of this time," she repeated yet again.

"I know."

"I'm sorry that this is happening to him," she told her. "I know you wanted him to completely beat the odds and live a long, long life. But this has nothing to do with you. This has to do with H.L.H.S."

"I just can't stop wondering what would have happened if we would have done the three phase pro-"

"While you're at it, you might as well just wonder what it would be like if he never had H.L.H.S. But he does. "

"Good point," she said.

"Go home, Arizona. You shouldn't feel like you have to be here,"

"I just got here, so I can at least go see if they need anything first."

"Okay."

* * *

"Mom's here," Sofia told Faith about two hours later as she entered the NICU. "I just saw her in the cafeteria. It's her day off, but she came to check on Adler. Now she's getting Genevieve, Gavin, Justice, and Cohen some lunch,"

"Oh."

"And she says she's very proud of us for doing the skills lab this morning."

They knew that Arizona would have a comment when she found out. Actually, they figured that the majority of the doctors would say something about how they were taking after their mother. They really didn't think it was a big deal. They were proud of their mom for everything that she had accomplished, but all that they were doing was teaching it. They didn't see the big deal.

"Of course," she laughed.

"How's she doing?" she asked of the little girl that Faith was feeding.

Baby Carly had been born prematurely, but she was doing well now. The only remaining concern that they had with her was her jaundice. Once that was under control, she could be sent home with a clean bill of health. She would need to come to follow up appointments, but they didn't foresee any major issues in her future.

"She wasn't too happy about having her heel pricked again," she answered. "But she's finishing this bottle in record time."

"The blood work isn't back from the lab yet?"

"No."

"Okay," she replied. "I was kind of hoping it would be. Her parents usually come right around this time, so..."

"I know," she agreed. "But they'll be here for a while. We'll have the results as soon as we can."

She took the now empty bottle out of the baby's mouth. Carly began crying.

"Oh, it's all done," she explained. "Now it's time to burp. Are you unhappy because you're still hungry or because you're still not over that reflux? I thought that was taken care of."

"Sometimes it can be persistent," Sofia said. "But she's on meds. for it, so hopefully those help. At least most of the time."

"Oh, there we go," Faith smiled as Carly stopped fussing. "That's better."

"Are you going to grab some lunch after you finish up with her?" she asked. "You can."

"I have to make sure my interns are all actually doing what I told them to," she said. "And then I want to go see Adler. But after that, I will. Yeah."

"You want back on Cardio so bad, don't you?"

"It's been a week," she said. "If you were away from your specialty for a week, you would, too."

Carly made a little displeased sound.

"I love getting to take care of you and some other people, but I think I'd rather just take care of my friend Adler right now," she told her.

Alex came walking into the NICU. He seemed really excited about something. In fact, he hadn't even taken the time to properly tie up the back of his gown. The knot he had tied in it was surely going to come undone quickly.

"UNOS called –"

"UNOS called?!" Faith replied.

"Not about your friend," he said. "Sorry."

"About Blake Quincy?" Sofia asked.

"Yes. They have a liver for him."

"Good," she said.

"I'll stay I guess," Faith offered.

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine. Kids getting organs is good. I just got my hopes up."

Just as they were leaving, Sebastian came in. It wasn't uncommon for him to be working with families in there. He was often trying to help older siblings understand what was happening with their baby brothers and sisters, for example, but she wasn't expecting him.

"It's Adler," he said. "Can you come?"

"Now?"

"Apparently," he sighed.

"Let me page an intern," she decided.

* * *

They weren't planning to actually go into his hospital room. They had said their goodbyes already. They just wanted to be outside as a show of support for his family. However, Teddy happened to be in the operating room, so Justice came out and asked that Faith come in.

"Me?" she asked. "Are you –?"

"My mom keeps asking questions," he said. "They're the same ones, but she just needs to hear the answers one more time."

"That's normal," Arizona told him. "It doesn't feel real. We see that a lot."

Callie nodded in agreement just as her pager went off.

"I'm sorry, I –"

"It's okay," Arizona replied. "Go."

"Are you going to be okay?"

Arizona just nodded. They saw death all of the time. Sure, this loss was going to be harder on them than most, but it still wasn't an uncommon experience for them. She didn't want to say that in front of Adler's brother, but it was the truth.

Faith and Justice went into the room.

"What can I do?" Faith asked them as she turned off the monitors, figuring that they didn't need to see or hear the actual moment of his death.

"He's not in any pain, right?" his mom asked.

"At this point, he's on so many pain meds. that he's not feeling anything," she told her. "He's not in pain."

"Good," Gavin said.

"What's going to happen exactly?" Genevieve questioned.

"His heart will just stop. The monitors are off, so you won't notice anything there. He'll stop breathing and that's how you'll know."

"And there's no way to know how long...?"

"I wouldn't think it would be too much longer," she said. "He's been about the same for the last week and a half. I can't see it taking too much –"

"So it'll be today?"

"That's what it looks like," she said. "Adler keeps refusing to give up, so he could hang on, but nothing seems to indicate that he will at this point. I'm so, so sorry."

She was trying her best to act like it wasn't a friend in that bed, but she couldn't help it. Adler was her friend, and he was dying right in front of her.

"And no word from UNOS?"

"No. I don't even know what to say to you right now. I'm just so, so sorry that this is happening."

"We are too," Cohen said.

* * *

Adler died three hours later. His family was appreciative of all of the support that their friends had come to offer, but they eventually asked for time alone. They needed a few last moments with their son and their brother.

Everyone still had shifts to work, and they barely managed to pull themselves together long enough to do so. It was the roughest shift that any of them had worked in a while, but they did it. They had to save the lives that they could. Adler would have wanted them to, they decided.

After work, none of them wanted to head home. It seemed odd to spend the night the same way that they usually did when something so different had happened to them that day. Sofia mentioned the Emerald City Bar and they all decided to head over. For the most part, they had made some great memories there. Maybe they would help. If not, they could at least share their memories of Adler over a few drinks. After sharing a few Adler stories, they got off topic, but that was okay, too.

"Will you quit calling this place Joe's?" Sofia requested of her parents. "Please?"

They knew of Joe the bartender, but he hadn't owned the place in years. He had sold it long ago. Therefore, it was never really "Joe's" to this generation of doctors.

"It's just...Joe's," Arizona smiled. "That's never going to change for us."

"Fine."

"Your madre and I had our first kiss here, you know," she added.

"We know," Faith replied. "We've heard the story."

"I haven't," her husband said.

"I'm pretty sure you have," she told him. "My mom followed my madre into the bathroom and intro –"

"Wait, that was your first kiss? I thought you just met here. Your first kiss was really _right_ when you met? In a bar bathroom? That's –"

"The meeting everyone hopes their parents will tell them over and over again," Sofia said. "So romantic, right?"

"We decided we'd have kids one day after a shooting, got engaged after a car crash, and I came home from Africa to find out that I was going to be a mother," Arizona said. "It's just how we do things."

"You have the best luck," Faith sarcastically remarked.

"Oh, we know," Callie replied. "Seriously, though. We've got it pretty good. We've been married for three decades, both you and Sofia are doing well, you're successful...we'll take it."

"They're just happy we're still alive," Faith told her sister. "That in itself is a big deal considering how our lives started."

"It is," Callie said. "Especially you, Faith. I know you know this, but it's incredible that you've done so well."

"Yep," she agreed, taking a sip of her water.

"I still can't believe Adler actually died," Arizona said. "I thought a heart would come. I really did."

"We all did," Sebastian responded. "Even when we were pretty sure it wouldn't, we didn't stop hoping."

"And even if you know that medicine isn't all about people living, it's not easy," Faith added.

"No."

* * *

**Thanks for reading. Please know that I have a reason for this. I did not let Adler die just because I could. Things will be happy again. I promise you. I'll have more for you soon. **


	8. Saying Goodbye

"Eat," Faith told her husband.

Sebastian had been asked to give Adler's eulogy because no one in the family thought that they could handle doing so. He was honoured to have been asked, but he wasn't sure how he was going to write and deliver a tribute that lived up to what his friend deserved. He hadn't liked anything that he had written so far, so he was starting over. With the funeral in only two days, he didn't have much time now. Even though no one was pressuring him, he was clearly stressing out over wanting to make his words just right.

"I'm not even that hungry," he said.

He did stop to take a bite of the hospital cafeteria sandwich as he typed out part of the eulogy. He knew that if he didn't even attempt to eat, Faith would continue to pester him about how he needed food in his stomach since he had just taken some of his medication. She was correct, and he would have been telling her the same thing if she had been picking at her meal, too.

"Still," she said.

"I ate. Happy now?"

"I'd be happy if you actually finished it," she asked, standing up and massaging his shoulders in an attempt to relax him.

"I'm not that hungry."

"Seb –"

"I just need to finish this, okay?"

"It'll be great no matter what you say," she assured him as her pager went off. "It's Lexie," she announced as she checked it. "I've got to go."

"You haven't finished lunch either," he pointed out.

She picked up her sandwich and ate some of it. She could take it with her and finish it on the way.

"There," she smiled. "Now eat yours. Seriously, Seb. You haven't been sleeping, now you're working on the eulogy instead of eating. This isn't good."

"Our friend just died," he said. "You're not exactly sleeping well either. You just get to pretend that work is the reason behind it."

"I know," she admitted. "We'll adjust eventually. We always do."

This hadn't been the first friend that they had lost. They had a few friends with similar conditions. This had both been a blessing and a curse. They were able to relate to other people around their age who had been born with heart conditions or who had received transplants, but they had also lost a few of them.

"We weren't as close to anyone else as we were to Adler."

"I know that, too."

* * *

Faith and Lexie ended up going into two surgeries one after the other. Just before they were about to head home, Callie and Arizona found their daughter fast asleep on a gurney in the hallway. She wasn't even laying down. A combination of her busy shift and the trouble that she had been having with falling asleep in these last few days had done her in.

"Do we wake her up?" Callie whispered as a strand of their daughter's now curly blonde hair fell over her face.

"No," Arizona replied. "Let her sleep. She looks so peaceful."

Memories of the many, many nights that they used to watch her sleep – especially in their arms during times that she was hospitalized – came back all of the sudden. Some of these were bittersweet simply because many of the nights that Faith had spent in the hospital were rough, but they couldn't deny for a second that they didn't still love those moments. Now that they had fully grown children, they missed the times when they were small enough to cuddle with.

"She still makes the same little facial expressions that she used to," Callie noticed.

Arizona laughed.

"Not much about her has actually changed," she said. "She aged and her hair started getting curlier, but she's still so much like she was as a child. Sometimes I'll find myself forgetting that she's really this old. Same with Sofia, but she's changed a bit more than Faith has."

"She has."

Sofia walked up. Just by looking at her sister she could tell that Faith's day had been a demanding one. She had had many like these herself, however, she had never fallen asleep sitting up at work. The small part of her that still wanted to give her baby sister a hard time every now and then found this amusing.

"Leave her be."

"I didn't say I was going to wake her up," she said. "But there's an on call room twenty feet that way. Yet she picked the gurney."

"Maybe it was occupied," her mom suggested.

Faith awoke as they talked. She opened her blue eyes to see the three of them standing there.

"I fell asleep here?" she asked.

"Yep," Sofia replied. "You were out cold."

"What time is it?" she questioned. "Where's Seb?"

"It's eight thirty," Callie said.

Faith had been asleep for about two hours now. The good news was that her shift was now over, so she could head home and sleep in her own bed.

"And Sebastian went home when you were in the O.R.," Sofia finished. "I was working with him, so..."

"Oh."

"And he finally finished the eulogy."

"Thank God."

"Addison's flying in tonight and she wants to know if some of us want to get together for dinner tomorrow," Callie told them. "Do you want to come? It'll just be us, Mark, Lexie, Derek, Meredith..."

"It's 'just' half of the hospital," Sofia exaggerated, knowing that her madre wasn't even finished naming off all of the people who would probably attend.

"Well, Addie wants to see her friends while she's here," Arizona replied. "She might as well."

Even though Dr. Nerissa Kaye had replaced her on the trial all of those years ago, Addison still wanted to know how the patients – particularly Adler – were doing. When she had heard of his death, she had decided to fly in for the funeral. However, she also didn't want this trip to Seattle to only be a sad one. She wanted to scrub in on some surgeries, teach some things, and spend some time with her old friends. She tried to see them every now and then, but it was never enough.

"True," Faith said. "Okay, we're in. As long as I'm not stuck here and Seb's not freaking out about giving the eulogy."

"But how are you managing to get reservations for that many people so soon? And at a decent place?" Sofia, who had already committed to the dinner, asked.

"I called Max," Callie explained. "We're going to his work. He's going to make it happen."

"Okay."

* * *

Faith was on her way home when she received a text from her husband that told her that he was headed over to Cohen's house. Cohen just needed to hang out with someone who knew Adler well, but wasn't related to him. He needed to say some things that he didn't think he could express in front of his mom, dad, or brother because they were just as distraught as he was.

Sebastian tried not to wake Faith when he arrived home, but she felt him get into his side of the bed and she was up.

"What time is it?"

"Midnight."

"And you just got home?"

"We just got talking about Adler," he said. "It started off really sad, but we were actually laughing by the end of it. We have so many good memories, too."

"Yeah," she said. "So I shouldn't feel bad about being happy that Addison just flew in?"

"She did?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "And I miss Adler. In fact, my phone went off earlier right around the time that he would text me if he was bored and I wasn't at the hospital to stop and see him, and I seriously forgot that it wouldn't be him for a second."

"I've already had so many moments like that. It's normal."

"It is," she nodded. "But it'll still be nice to see Addison. I've never scrubbed in with her, and I might get to. I wish more than anything that she wasn't here for the funeral, but I'm deciding that I can still be glad she's here. She's Addison Montgomery. I'm not even interested in her specialty, but she's amazing. So is Nerissa, but Addie's just a _little_ bit better."

"So you're willingly going to opt not to be with Teddy or Cristina tomorrow?"

"Clearly! Again, it's Addison Montgomery."

He smiled.

"Good luck with that."

"Thank you."

* * *

"With what I do, I don't usually get to follow too many of my patients into adulthood," Addison told Faith the next day as they did get to operate together. "I save them and that's that. I like to think they go on to lead perfect lives, but sometimes that doesn't happen. Obviously."

"You don't regret it, do you?" Faith wondered. "Because I think my mom feels like she didn't do enough for Adler. That's not true, though. She gave him a much better quality of life, and probably still a longer one, than he might have otherwise had. But just because she can't say that for sure, she feels –"

"I don't feel that," Addison said. "Every trial creates unknowns. I can see why your mom feels that, but I don't."

"Good."

Addison found herself just watching Faith operate with her. She knew that the resident was only interested in Cardio as a specialty, but she had so much talent. That was apparent. Addison had taught many surgeons. She knew skill when she saw it.

"You know, you could make a good fetal surgeon."

"Everyone thinks I'd be good at their specialty," Faith laughed. "My madre wants someone she really likes to go into Ortho, Mark thinks Plastics would be –"

"You're good at more than one thing," she said. "That's good. We all know that you're going to pick Cardio, but don't limit yourself just yet. Gain all of the skills and knowledge that you can. Well-rounded doctors are the best ones. Why do you think I have so many qualifications?"

"Because you're a genius?"

"Like I said, Cardio's for you. We all know that. Still, soak up the other things. Cardio cases aren't always _just _Cardio cases. The more you learn, the better you'll be."

"I know," she agreed. "Bailey forces us to branch out."

"Bailey's a smart woman."

"She's awesome."

"She is," she nodded. "Oh, and don't listen to Mark. Plastics isn't for you. Sure, you have the skills. The surgical dexterity you have is not too bad for a resident. But Mark just thinks that all of the pretty people should be in Plastics."

She laughed.

* * *

"I feel old," Addison said at dinner that night.

Their kids were all grown up. Now, instead of filling her in on how school was going for them, they were discussing serious relationships and careers. Meredith and Derek had filled her in on Zola's new job at a local elementary school, she had been able to see Maxwell and Chelsea, and Lexie was now showing off pictures of Declan practicing his role as a little firefighter since Halloween was coming up. The list went on and on, but it was making Addison feel ancient all of the sudden.

"We are old," Bailey said. "And my son's older than any of your kids. Except for Sloan."

"But I don't really have much of a relationship with her these days," Mark said. "So yeah. Bailey gets to feel like she's older than any of us because she's got the oldest kid in her life."

"Jake's daughter's older than that," Addison said. "We had grandkids around when Henry was twelve. You would think that that would help supress my need for more grandkids, but nope. Angela's kids are huge now, too. I can't wait for more someday. I've been told that Henry'd like to start and finish a fellowship first, but..."

"That's all I'm saying," Sofia agreed. "I'm still training. Technically. As much as I hate to admit it. Can I please just get settled in my career before I get married or anything?"

"It's just amazing that you grew up around all of us at the hospital and you can think of more than sex and cute doctors," Meredith said. "We all assumed we'd be the super focused ones, too. Then that place happened to us."

"No, then Joe's happened to us," Derek said.

"Not just us. Hardly anyone at that hospital wasn't thinking about wanting to be with someone else."

"Very true," Mark agreed.

"I appreciate the cute doctors," Sofia said. "I just don't want to get serious. And I know, I know, my biological clock or whatever. I'll deal with that at some point."

Callie laughed.

"I love how adamant you are," she smiled. "We know."

Sebastian's phone started ringing. Typically, he would have just ignored it and turned it off, but he suspected that it was probably one of Adler's brothers.

"Justice said that they might want my help with a few things," he explained. "I'll be back."

"Okay," Faith said.

* * *

"I just hope that it goes well," Sebastian told them at the funeral.

It went without saying that this day was already an emotional one. However, Sebastian was feeling an added level of stress over giving the eulogy.

"It will," Faith assured him.

"I did the eulogies for my brother, my mom, and my dad," Arizona added. "It's nerve-wracking and hard, but no one is going to come up to you and tell you that you did a bad job. People understand that it's tough. Genevieve, Gavin, Justice, and Cohen want you to do it. They know you'll do great. Don't worry about it."

"Okay," she said.

"She's right," Sofia agreed. "Remember how much I obsessed over my abuelo's? Everybody else thought it was great. Today's about paying tribute to Adler and that's exactly what you're doing."

It was a beautiful service. Of course, there were plenty of tears and sad moments. These were to be expected and they were only normal. However, there were also some great memories shared that made everyone feel a strange feeling of happiness and sorrow combined. Adler wouldn't have wanted his funeral to only be a depressing event, so everyone decided that it was just perfect.

"Thank you so much for coming," Genevieve said, walking up to a group of the doctors afterwards. "I know you're all so busy. I still can't believe you actually flew in, Dr. Montgomery."

"Stop thanking us," Addison said. "We want to be here."

"Adler wasn't just another patient to us," Austin Brady told her.

"We hope you know that," Teddy agreed with her now husband.

"We do," Genevieve nodded. "And we hope you know that Gavin and I are still nothing but thankful to you. We don't regret the trial. We don't wish we would have chosen anything else. The only thing we wish is that he was still here. You all saved his life and gave him more of the life that we wanted for him. When I was pregnant, we could never have imagined that he'd even make it as long as he did."

Arizona knew that Genevieve was mostly directing her words to her. As the head of the trial team that had operated on Adler, she felt like she should have been able to foresee the issues that he would have later in life and plan for them. However, logically, this was impossible. Logically, she knew that her trial was still a success. It had given Adler – and many other people now – a chance to live a better quality of life with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Adler's death didn't mean that she was a failure. Still, she couldn't deny that she was feeling these feelings.

She hugged the bereaved mother.

"We're at your son's funeral and you're trying to make me feel better," she said. "That's not how it's supposed to be, I don't think."

"None of this is how it's supposed to be," Genevieve stated. "But it's not because of you. Please, please know that. Arizona, as far as we see it, you're a hero. Even if we had to say goodbye to him before we should've had to."

"If there's anything at all you need –"

"We'll be in touch," she promised. "Just because we don't have Adler anymore doesn't mean we're not still close."

"Good."


	9. Seize The Day

Everyone was still upset over Adler's death, but they couldn't help but smile three weeks later. It was Halloween and the Peds. ward was full of an unusual sort of joy. The children still weren't feeling their best, but most of them were still able to get into the spirit of the day. Faith wasn't itching to get back to Cardio. She was enjoying working with her mom and making Halloween as good as it could be for the patients.

"William was so excited when I told him that he could have that chocolate bar," she smiled.

"I know, "Arizona said as she returned a chart back to its place at the nurse's station. "Halloween is one of my favourite days here. Christmas is just depressing because the patients can't be home for Christmas morning, but we can bring enough of Halloween to them that it seems to make most of them happy enough."

"Yeah. Sebastian's wearing a ridiculously bright orange shirt today, and he bought socks with bats on them. He looks insane for a grown man, but the kids will love it."

"Exactly," she agreed.

Callie walked up to them. She didn't have any cases with children today, so she hadn't gotten a chance to take part in the Halloween fun. However, she did have some time to stop by and see her wife. She hadn't realized that Faith was working with her.

"Oh, you're all up here, huh?"

"We are," Arizona smiled. "Sofia's attempting to find game pieces that a two-year-old swallowed, and we're about to go remove a tumour from a baby."

"A baby?" she asked.

"We should be able to get clean margins," she clarified. "The prognosis actually isn't too bad."

"Well, good," she replied, giving her a quick kiss. "I have a question."

"Which is...?"

"What would you like to do for Valentine's Day?"

Faith smiled just watching the way that her mothers looked at each other. She wanted her marriage to be much the same when she and Sebastian got to the point that Callie and Arizona were at now. This was important to her.

Still, she couldn't help but point out the obvious.

"It's Halloween," she teased.

"Why are you talking about February?" Arizona wondered.

"I thought maybe we could go somewhere," Callie explained.

"On vacation?"

"That would be the idea," she smiled.

"I'm jealous already," Faith commented. "You two will be on some beach somewhere and Seb'll hand me a box of chocolates and make dinner."

Actually, Sebastian could be a very romantic man. They just never made a big deal out of Valentine's Day because they didn't see the point in exchanging special things when they could enjoy dinner and a movie at home and save the money that they would have spent on a night out and big gifts for their future. Of course, they went out sometimes, but not usually for Valentine's Day. Faith totally bought into the romantic hype of the day, but they still kept it pretty simple. Even so, the plans that her madre was proposing seemed great. She knew that her moms would have a wonderful time.

"Why do we need to go away?" Arizona asked.

"Did you not hear what I just said about you being on the beach somewhere or something?" Faith replied. "In February?"

"Because we can," Callie decided. "Arizona, we still have the money from the inheritances that our parents left us, and we save as much as we can, but why do we need to wait until retirement to start doing something with some of our savings? I thought we could take some vacation time and get good use out of it sooner rather than later."

Her wife had a point. Retirement would come eventually, but they weren't making any plans to quit their jobs just yet. They were still able to operate, and they loved what they did too much. They didn't have any reasons to retire yet. They also didn't want to be too old to enjoy themselves when they did retire, though. Maybe taking more vacations – starting with one in February – was a good idea.

"Okay," she said. "Where are we going?"

"You pick."

"In the U.S. or –?"

"Whatever you want."

"Really?"

"Within reason," she said. "We're not spending a month on a beach somewhere."

"I figured that much."

* * *

A more emergent case came in and took up Arizona and Faith's operating room. Faith checked on the patient – a little girl named Kira – before heading to Sebastian's office. He was just finishing up working with a little boy.

"Happy Halloween," the child said.

"Happy Halloween to you, too," she smiled.

"See my Halloween stickers?" he asked, showing off the reward he had gotten for a great session with Sebastian. He didn't realize that all of the children who Sebastian worked with got them, whether or not they had good sessions.

"Cool," she replied.

"That one's where my I.V. goes," he said. "I got it taken out because I can go home tomorrow, but if I do good at getting it put in there again the next time I have to come, I'll get two stickers. That's the deal."

"I see."

"Because it's scary, but I can do it if I get stickers. I like it if they glow in the dark. Then my hand glows."

"Awesome."

"C'mon, Buddy," Sebastian smiled. "Let's go see if Mommy and Daddy are done their lunch yet."

"If not, can I play with more toys?"

"Yeah."

"Because I feel better today."

"Good."

After he brought the boy back to his mom and dad, Sebastian returned to his office. He hadn't been expecting to see his wife until much later into their shifts, so this was a welcome surprise.

"Did your surgery get pushed back?"

"Yep," she nodded. "And my moms are planning a trip."

"A trip?"

"My madre wants to take Mom away for Valentine's Day."

"Oh."

"How sweet is that?" she replied. "I know we don't do big things for Valentine's Day, but I love Madre's point."

"What's her point?"

"That they shouldn't wait to do what they want if they can start enjoying themselves now."

"Yeah. So now you want to do something on Valentine's Day? And you're telling me now?"

"No," she said. "It's more about deciding not to put important things off if you can help it."

"I see."

"Life is short, Seb. I mean, look at Adler."

"I know."

* * *

"Bradley passed all of the game pieces," Sofia reported about an hour after that.

"Okay," her mom mumbled as she looked up something on the computer.

"You don't even know what I just said," she suspected.

Her parents had always been fairly tuned in, but there had been times like this during her preteen years. She knew them well. Sometimes her interests just weren't theirs, so they would nod, smile, and give vague responses in an attempt to make her feel like they were really listening. This hadn't happened in a while, but she still knew it when she saw it.

Arizona had to admit that she was right. She had a few spare minutes and she was looking up ideas for possible vacation destinations.

"What?" she asked her, actually listening this time.

"Bradley passed all of the game pieces," she said. "I discharged him."

"Good," she replied, "It's a miracle that he didn't choke on any."

"I know," she agreed. "Thank God. What are you looking up? Something good? Can I scrub –?"

"Vacation options," she said.

"Vacation options?" she asked. "What?"

"Madre surprised me today," she explained. "She wants to go away for Valentine's Day."

"Oh, so a weekend thing?"

"No, it sounds like she wants to go on a real vacation," she corrected. "We've done the weekend thing before. This time is different. At least that's my plan and she's letting me choose, so that's what's happening."

"A vacation for Valentine's Day?"

"It's romantic," she said. "We've been saving for retirement, but she has a point. We can start enjoying some of that lifestyle now. Clearly in moderation, but we can."

"Sounds like a midlife crisis," she teased.

Really, she was happy for her moms. They had worked hard all of their lives. Of course, they had also gone on plenty of vacations, but they hadn't been on one in a few years.

"It is not a midlife crisis," she insisted. "I think she might have lost a patient today. Things like that make us realize that –"

"Life is short," she said. "Faith had a heart transplant as a toddler. I know that things happen."

"We have our careers and our family, so we might as well set aside a little extra time to enjoy life. Not that we didn't enjoy life when you and Faith were at home, but it's different now. It's sort of just us again."

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere cold," she answered. "If I'm going to go somewhere in February, I'm going to get away from winter weather."

She got a page just then. The operating room was available for Kira now.

"Oh, good."

"What?"

"An O.R. is finally ready for a patient."

* * *

The baby's surgery went well. Faith and Arizona were both in the NICU with her right afterwards. Her parents would be on their way down soon, but they figured that they would keep her company in the meantime. She was brand new. It seemed like the least that they could do.

"I heard that your Mommy's doctor is just giving her a little checkup and then Daddy'll bring her down to see you," Faith said. "That's what the nurse told us. They're coming soon. They know that your surgery's all done."

The newborn grabbed a hold of one of Arizona's fingers while her surgeon attempted to do a quick exam. Kira was just one day old at this point, and she had spent almost all of that time in her incubator, so Dr. Robbins couldn't blame her for wanting contact like this.

"You would think tiny baby fingers would have little effect on me at this point," she smiled. "I see them and hold them all the time. But they still melt me. They're so perfect, Kira!"

Sofia, who had to check on a patient of hers who was in there, came in just in time to hear this.

"Did everything go well with her?" she asked.

"Yeah," Faith nodded.

"Good," she said. "Can you imagine finding out your newborn has a tumour? Those parents needed good news. Not that all parents don't, but a newborn with a tumour is just not something anyone thinks about. I'm a doctor and it even seems especially scary to me."

"On one hand, the NICU makes me absolutely terrified to have kids," Faith said. "And on the other, working with little ones like this one makes me want babies now. The baby fever has been kind of out of control today. She may be sick, but she's so perfectly tiny and I want one of those. Hopefully minus the medical issues, but now that Seb and I are married, seeing brand new babies just..."

"Really?" Arizona asked.

"I'm trying to suppress the feeling," she responded. "It'll pass. Not all babies are this cute, right? Plus, thinking about the ones with the tumours, and the heart conditions, and the other problems helps for now."

"You just got married," Arizona said. "Madre and I can't wait for grandkids, but maybe some time away from little patients would be good."

"What happened to the 'life is short, so do what you want' realization?" Sofia asked.

"I'm trying not to pressure her."

"Besides, what have you done to seize the day lately?" Faith questioned Sofia. "You focus on the here and now."

"I just had a coffee with Cody from Radiology," she said. "I've been finding ways to turn him down nicely for weeks now because he seems like the kind of guy who only wants to spend time with a woman if he thinks they could be compatible, but I decided that coffee's not exactly a commitment. Plus, everyone knows that I'm focusing on my work these days, so I don't think I'm leading him on or anything. Right?"

"Coffee is coffee," Faith decided. "You're not giving him any sort of idea. He's hot, too."

"You're married."

"I'm not blind," she replied.

"You're all nervous over a guy," Arizona smiled.

"Who said I was nervous?" Sofia asked.

"You want to make sure that you're clear that a cup of coffee didn't start anything. Overthinking is a sign of inter-"

Fortunately for her, Sofia was able to escape the rest of that conversation when her dad and her nephew were spotted standing just outside of the NICU. Little Declan was all dressed up in his tiny firefighter costume. He may not have been exactly sure what Halloween was at his age, but he did have a little chocolate bar in each hand. Therefore, he must have been doing something right.

"Declan!" Sofia smiled as she, Arizona, and Faith went out to see him for just a minute. "Grandpa brought you here to show you off?"

He rubbed his tired eyes.

"It's definitely naptime," Mark said, kissing the fussy boy's cheek. "But we saw Nana and she said something about Auntie Sofia –"

"Sof?" Declan asked.

"And that's what he's been saying ever since," he finished. "So apparently we had to come see you before we left."

"Sof?"

"I'm right here," Sofia laughed. "You make a good firefighter."

"Very cute," Faith added.

"Who gave you chocolate?" Arizona questioned.

"No," he said, obviously just refusing to answer the question because he was getting sleepy now.

"No?" Mark repeated. "How about Nana and Bailey?"

"No."

"Alright," he said. "Well, we've seen Auntie Sof. Can we go back to my house now? If I keep you out much longer, your mom and dad aren't going to be too happy with me. You'll be cranky later tonight. That's when you get the rest of the candy."

"No."

"If you come to my house, I have a special bag ready just for you," Faith told him. "I already told your mommy."

This got a small smile to spread across his face. He still wasn't exactly happy, but the idea of special treats was exciting.

"You don't even know that Mommy and Daddy'll end up eating most of it," Arizona said. "You'll just be happy with whatever they give you, right? Little guys like you don't need a whole bunch."

"No."

"You agree?"

"No."


	10. Patience, My Dear

The sun was just barely beginning to rise when Faith woke up one morning about three weeks into November. She hadn't gotten very much rest the night before because she had had a busy evening at the hospital. In fact, she had only come home to get a few hours of rest in between shifts. Now she was headed right back there.

She didn't mind. Today she would be working on Cristina's specialty. The days that she got to operate on hearts were her favourites. Plus, she had tomorrow off and Thanksgiving was coming early this year. Not everyone had been able to get the actual holiday off, but they would make due with celebrating it the weekend before. On some other days like this one, Faith would have had a tougher time getting up, but she didn't mind right now because of what would be in store for her over the next two days.

"I was hoping you'd be home a little earlier last night," Sebastian told her when he woke up and walked into the bathroom to find her straightening her hair shortly afterwards.

"I was supposed to be," she said. "Sorry. One of my interns questioned Jackson's treatment plan, and it turned into this whole big deal. The patient thought that Jackson wasn't giving her the best care possible, but really, he knows better than the intern. Or me. It took me a good two hours to convince the patient that Avery's treatment plan isn't a bad one. Obviously she wants to talk to him today, but I managed to avoid having to wake him up last night. That was the last thing that I wanted. And then I had to pull out my inner Bailey and make sure that all of my interns knew to never do that in front of a patient again."

"You don't have an 'inner Bailey'," he laughed.

"You just haven't seen it."

"In over ten years?" he asked. "I think I would have seen it by now if it was in you."

Maybe he was right. She was not nearly as good at giving those kinds of speeches as Miranda Bailey was. However, very few – if any – doctors at the hospital were. That was okay. The point was that her interns now understood that they were to handle themselves differently. Occasionally they may have legitimate concerns about a superior doctor, but they had to be certain of their reasoning for such concerns and they definitely needed to remember to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner. The overwhelming majority of the time, Attending surgeons were not to be questioned in that way, considering that they had more training and experience. She had taught them this at the expense of some of her sleep.

"Still," she said. "I'm keeping them in line."

"Good," he replied, giving her a morning kiss. "And good morning."

"Good morning," she smiled.

"While I have a chance to bring this up before we go to work, my mom called last night. She wants to make Thanksgiving plans.

"You have Thanksgiving plans," she responded. "I'm working, but you're going over and having dinner with your parents. I won't be there, but they'll still get to spend the day with you. It's better than nothing."

"Apparently they want to see you, too," he said.

"Invite them to my moms' house for dinner tomorrow," she proposed. "They've come before and no one cares. Everyone likes your parents. Especially Declan because they're two extra people to play with."

"You're sure?"

"I'll ask them today," she said. "But I'm sure. Our families are close. It'll be fun."

"Okay."

* * *

"Is it February yet?" Arizona asked Sofia a few hours later while at work.

As usual, she was trying to make vacation plans. She and her wife had decided on St. Lucia as their destination of choice, but they had yet to agree on where they wanted to stay or what they wanted to do while there. Despite this, Arizona couldn't stop reading travel brochures and trying to plan the perfect getaway.

"Not exactly," Sofia replied.

"Well, it should be," she said.

Even though Faith was on Cardio today, she made a point of heading to the Peds. ward just to let her mom know that Wren and Darren would be joining them for dinner the next day. She wasn't really asking since she knew that they would be welcome, but Sebastian had wanted her to check. Plus, they needed to know how many places to set at the table,

"More vacation planning?" she wondered. "Aren't you supposed to do that with Madre?"

"She just wants to stay in the whole time," she explained. "I actually want to do things. If I plan with her, we get nowhere. If I plan and then show her my plans, she might not dismiss them so quickly."

"True," Faith said. "Anyways, Wren and Darren wanted to do something with both Seb and I for Thanksgiving, so I told him to invite them tomorrow."

"Good," Arizona smiled as her pager went off.

She was being paged to the room of one of her post-op patients who had been experiencing a few complications, so she was quick to head off and answer that particular page.

"I thought you were on Cardio today," Sofia told her sister.

"I am," she replied. "I have to get back there."

"Is there a reason why your intern is especially weird today?" she wondered. "Marissa's in the worst mood I've ever seen her in, and she jumps into action when I ask her to do the most routine things."

"Good," she smiled, proud of herself for giving an effective speech. "We had an issue last night and I set them straight."

"You set them straight?" she asked. "Okay."

"I can set them straight," she replied. "I have a tough side to me, too. It worked, didn't it?"

"I guess," Sofia considered as her pager went off as well.

Faith could guess who was paging her sister just based on her reaction when she pulled her pager off of her waistband and checked it. The smile that spread across her face could only mean one thing.

"Off to see lover boy?" she teased.

"Definitely," she answered as she stood up off of the gurney that she had been sitting on.

"Oh, so you admit it," she noticed.

"Admit what? Cody's not exactly my boyfriend. We started out by having coffee a few times, and now we head straight to the on-call room. I know I didn't think he wanted that kind of thing, but I guess he's made an exception."

"I give it a month."

"Until what?"

"You finally decide that you're basically dating."

"We're not," she said. "And I'm wasting precious time by standing here talking to you."

Faith laughed as her sister headed off to meet Cody from Radiology in an on-call room of his choosing.

* * *

"Everything smells so good," Callie said as she and her wife were preparing their Thanksgiving meal the next day.

It was still early, so no one else had arrived yet. It was just the two of them in the kitchen working on making sure that all of the food that they were making was ready in time. They were going all out this year. They almost always cooked a full Thanksgiving meal for everyone, but this year was especially great. Sofia was back home this time. Therefore, they wanted everything to be even better than it had been for the last few years.

"It's going to be delicious," Arizona smiled. "Do you think we have too much, though?"

"There's no such thing as too much food on Thanksgiving," she told her. "Plus, Wren and Darren are coming now, so..."

"I know."

"And we can send everybody home with leftovers."

"For sure," she said. "I love cooking, but it always surprises me that Max and Chelsea don't jump at the chance to do all of this. They cook for a living. Wouldn't Thanksgiving be –?"

"I think they need a break from cooking on holidays," Callie decided. "Plus, they have a toddler."

"I'm not saying that they should have to," Arizona clarified. "I just always think they might like to."

"Chelsea offered," Callie said. "But I didn't see the point. They have a fairly small house, so hosting everyone there just makes less sense. And we love cooking. I told her not to worry about it. Bringing dessert's good enough."

"Yes," she agreed.

"What time is everyone coming?" Callie asked.

"Sofia's working until two," Arizona said. "She'll come after that. I told everyone else to come around that time, too."

"Okay."

"Why couldn't you talk Bailey into letting us have time off at Christmas again?"

Their vacation time was never far from her mind, and the fact that it wasn't technically even Thanksgiving yet was discouraging. She was only reminded that they would have a few more family get-togethers like this one before it would be time to head off on their vacation. Time seemed to be crawling.

"You know we're too busy around the holidays. February is the closest opportunity for us to both get more than a few days off at a time."

"But it's so far away."

"Time will fly."

"It hasn't so far."

"It will. With Faith's birthday, Christmas –"

"I hope you're right."

* * *

"You're too cute," Wren told Declan as they ate dinner.

The little boy was still finishing up his meal long after all of the adults were done. This wasn't because he couldn't have finished his meal quicker than he was, but more so because he was having way too much fun seeking the undivided attention of every other person at the table.

"Not Declan!" Sebastian laughed. "Declan's not cute. Are you?"

"Yeah," he said in a serious tone.

"Oh, you are?" he asked.

"Are you done?" Chelsea questioned. "You only have a few pieces of turkey left."

He seemed to be just picking at the food in front of him, so she assumed that he was finished. Luckily he hadn't thrown any of it on the floor yet. She wanted to make sure that it didn't get to that point.

"No," he said as he reached for two pieces of the turkey and put one of them into his mouth.

He finished up his meal right around the time that all of the other guests began enjoying their dessert. Even though he had had desserts before, his parents weren't sure that he would eat very much of the pumpkin pie. Therefore, they figured that they could just sneak him bites of theirs.

Their son considered himself a big boy. He wanted his own piece. In the interest of letting him enjoy the day – and of avoiding a tantrum if they were being completely honest – they finally gave in.

"Is that delicious?" Arizona asked him. "You like Thanksgiving, huh?"

"Who doesn't love Thanksgiving?" Sofia wondered.

"Look at your face," Maxwell laughed as Declan only got messier and messier as he all but dove into the pie.

"Clearly you think it's good," Faith said. "Oh, Declan. I can't wait until I have a kid just as silly as you are."

* * *

The rest of the day was fun, but Sebastian had to admit that he had been looking forward to the quiet time at home that Faith's full day off today would give them. It didn't matter to him that she didn't have the actual holiday off as long as they had today.

They went home and decided to watch a movie. Yet, neither one of them actually did very much watching. Something that his wife had said at dinner had been on Sebastian's mind, and he couldn't help but bring it up.

"You can't wait to have a baby?"

She didn't really know what to say. She couldn't deny that she really did want to start a family, but maybe the phrase "can't wait" had been misunderstood.

"Umm..."

When they had gotten engaged, the two of them had started thinking ahead and planning as much as they could for their future. They knew that nothing was guaranteed – since their health issues had taught them that at very young ages – but they still had goals for their lives. At that time, they had decided to get married after Faith's intern year was finished for a reason. That way they could start thinking about having children sooner rather than later. Given their histories, beginning a family might not be the simplest thing for them. They had many things to consider before that could happen. Knowing this, they had decided to start talking about it somewhere between six and eight months after their wedding. This way, if it took the time that they figured it could, that would be okay.

"I know it's only been three and a half months," she said. "I didn't literally mean 'can't wait.' I know that we want a little more time just the two of us. Part of me wants to start thinking about all of that right now, but most of me knows that waiting until I'm further into this year of my residency is good. That way, by the time we have a baby, I'll be at least part of the way into my third year. And that's if everything works out perfectly, which it probably won't given all of the things we have to consider before we do anything. You don't have to worry."

"Good," he smiled.

She expected him to be relieved, but she wasn't prepared for just how relieved he was. She knew that he didn't already feel what she did, but he seemed to be less excited about the idea than he ever had been when they had discussed it in the past.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"I said we'll wait to have kids and the grin on your face is huge now," she told him. "A difference of a few months is _that_ big to you? I know it matters, but I didn't think you'd be _thrilled_ by it."

"It's just..."

He knew that he had to choose his words carefully, so he took a minute before he said anything else.

"I know we've always wanted kids, but now that we're getting closer and closer to the point when we said we'd start really talking about it, I'm getting nervous. I still want kids, but is it too much to ask after all that we've been through?"

"You're having second thoughts?"

"Not necessarily," he said. "It's just that the reality of what having kids could mean for us is definitely on my mind more and more."

"You mean having a baby with a heart condition?" she asked.

"That or having something happen while you're pregnant," he told her. "Yes, pregnancy after transplant is possible under the right care, but doesn't it worry you? I know people have gone on to have healthy children after transplants, but it's not without risk."

"I know," she agreed. "But we have options. Pregnancy isn't the only way we can do this."

"Well, no."

"It seems like the most obvious choice because we won't have to work with a surrogate or an adoption agency, and that's probably financially best, but it's not necessarily what we have to do. When I say 'have' a baby, I don't always mean physically. When you're ready, we can talk about all of the ways to do this."

"Until then?"

"Until then, I do my best to be a very patient wife," she smiled. "I'm a resident. I'll be able to keep myself busy."

"I didn't expect to feel so torn between wanting a family and feeling like we should just be happy as a couple after all we've been through," he said.

"But you want kids, right?"

"I do," he nodded. "But I'm still hesitant. That part doesn't just go away because I want something. I know that you didn't expect me to feel like this. I didn't think I would either, but everything's so much more complicated for us. Even now."

"Yeah."

* * *

"_I'm not going to bed early tonight," Faith stated, walking into the kitchen one day when she was just four years old._

"_You're not?" Callie asked. _

_When they had recently given Sofia a later bedtime, the moms had expected Faith to decide that she should get one as well. They understood that it wasn't really fair from her point of view. However, Sofia was older and it was also unfair to expect her to have to abide by the early bedtime just because her sister was still too young. Plus, Faith just wasn't ready for a change like that. Whenever they cheated and let her break the bedtime rule, they paid for it the next day. When she was ready, a later bedtime would happen for her, but it wasn't going to be right now._

"_No," she said. "I say I should get a new bedtime."_

"_Who makes the rules?" Arizona questioned._

"_You."_

"_And what is the rule?" she asked._

"_That I have a little girl bedtime."_

_Callie kissed her on the top of the head. Faith was feeling more and more frustrated by being the "little" one. They wanted her to feel like she was growing up, but a part of her always felt like she was still small because she was younger than Sofia was._

"_One day," she promised. "One day you'll get a later bedtime. Promise."_

"_When?"_

"_Well, when Madre and I decide that you're ready for one," Arizona explained. "If you don't get a lot of sleep, you're still crabby in the morning."_

"_No, I'm not."_

_She laughed._

"_I can't wait to get big and do whatever I want."_

"_Whatever you want?" Callie smiled. "Like what?"_

"_Like go to bed when I say, and eat snacks for dinner, and have spelling tests and math like Sofia does."_

"_Spelling tests and math mean you're grown up?" Arizona asked._

"_Yeah," she said. "Well, a little grown up. Not as much as you."_

"_I see."_

"_I have to wait a lot," she said. _

"_Patience, Faith," Arizona smiled. "Patience."_

"_Patience is hard sometimes."_


	11. Just Enjoy It

_After two years of hearing their children talk about how much they wished that they could go back to Los Angeles, the moms finally decided to return. They missed it just as much as the girls did, and it would be nice to see Addison and her family again._

"_Is the beach your still your favourite?" Arizona asked Faith as the five-year-old began to cover her with sand._

_She had just "buried" her in the sand and now it was Faith's turn to return the__ favour__. Even if it would take the little lady a while and Arizona would rather not get so dirty, she couldn't exactly say no. Faith thought it was fun, and it was nice to see her so happy over such a simple thing. Mommy wasn't about to spoil that._

"_I love it," she said. "Mommy…?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Thanks for taking us here."_

"_You're so, so welcome, Faith," she smiled._

_While her children were both good kids, they didn't always remember to show their appreciation. They often got overly excited and just forgot to step back and be grateful. This was normal, of course, but it was wonderful to hear these words of gratitude come from Faith. They were doing something right as parents._

_Faith continued to cover Arizona with sand, and Sofia eventually joined in. Luckily for Mom, the process started to go considerably faster with her bigger girl helping out._

"_What's this?" Faith asked, putting her finger over a little stretch mark on Arizona's thigh. _

_It was a really, really small one, but Faith had still found it. Kids were excellent at finding imperfections like that and making a big deal out of them._

"_It's a stretch mark," Arizona explained, unable to see it, but still knowing exactly what she was inquiring about. "I got it when you were in my belly."_

"_But it's not on your belly."_

"_It's 'cause more than just her belly was fat," Sofia said. _

"_Oh."_

"_Thanks, Sof," she laughed._

"_It was," she insisted. "Remember when we saw pictures? When I was in Madre's stomach, she wasn't so fat."_

"_My pregnancy with you was shorter," Callie told her._

"_I know," she agreed. "But still."_

_Faith gave Arizona a kiss. _

"_Now you're not so fat," she reassured her._

_Addison laughed._

"_Is that your way of being nice?" she asked. "Saying she's not as fat?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_You might need to work on your compliments sometimes," Arizona suggested, finding it hilarious that Faith had gone from being wise beyond her years with gratitude right back to giving twisted compliments such as that one. "But thank you."_

"_You're welcome."_

* * *

"I love it here," Arizona smiled as she looked around the lobby of their resort hotel.

Valentine's Day was in a few days, and their big vacation was just getting started. It would only be a week, but it was a much needed one. They would have so much fun, and work wouldn't interrupt any of it. That was good to know.

"So far we've seen the roads from the airport and the lobby," Callie laughed. "It's gorgeous here, but we haven't done anything for you to love."

"I'm going to love it," she said. "It's so beautiful, and we get the whole week to ourselves. I love my job, but it's always wonderful to have more time for us."

"I agree," Callie smiled.

She already knew that this vacation was a great idea on her part. Just seeing the way that Arizona was practically giddy with excitement was perfect.

"What are you looking most forward to?"

"The bed," she answered.

"Besides that," she smiled. "Of course we're looking forward to that. But something else. I personally can't wait for the couples' massage."

"Me neither," she nodded.

"This week is going to fly by, isn't it?" she asked.

"Probably. We'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts."

* * *

They were right. Before they knew it, they were two days into their vacation. They had enjoyed the sightseeing, the beach, and the couples' massage that they had just had earlier that afternoon. However, they still couldn't really figure out where the last two days had gone.

"We can't order in tomorrow," Arizona said.

They had ordered dinner to be delivered to their room both nights so far. Eating in bed was so much better than getting all dressed up and heading out. Callie had insisted upon it. They already had reservations made for a nice Valentine's Day meal somewhere else tomorrow night, though.

"I know," she said as she kissed her. "Shh…"

"Why are you 'shhing' me?" she asked.

"Because we're naked in bed eating dinner. Talking isn't necessary."

She smiled.

"Maybe it's just because we're old, but that massage felt so good today."

"I know."

"I think we need to make those a regular occurrence."

"Can we make naked dinners a regular occurrence, too?" she asked.

"Now that we don't have either one of our daughters living with us, that sounds like a great idea," she smiled.

* * *

Their Valentine's Day dinner the next night was so good that Callie hardly even minded that they couldn't eat it in bed. Going out had been the best decision. Even though it was busy at the restaurant they went to – because Valentine's Day was one of their busiest days of the year – the ladies were still able to get lost in each other, just as if no one else was there.

Afterwards, they went for a little walk on the beach before returning back to the room. Callie came out of the bathroom after a shower to find her wife on the computer. They had paid an extra fee for Internet access just because they didn't want to completely lose touch with Seattle. They were close to their family, and they didn't want to be entirely disconnected for the whole week. Still, this was the first time that they had turned the computer on at all.

"What are you doing?"

"Posting pictures," she said. "Just a few for now. Faith made me promise I would. That way, she can live vicariously through us while she works."

She laughed.

* * *

"You're still awake? Good."

Hours later, back in Seattle, Faith had just gotten home. It was eleven thirty at night, but her husband was still determined to make her some kind of meal for Valentine's Day. He came into the living room when it was done, expecting to find her starting to drift off because she was tired. She was on her computer instead.

"My mom put up some pictures," she said. "I can't believe how gorgeous it is there."

He smiled.

"Well, dinner's ready," he told her.

"What did you make?" she asked.

"Pancakes."

"For dinner?" she wondered as she got up.

"I figured you wouldn't want to eat a huge dinner at this time of night," he explained. "Plus, I already ate when I got home."

"Okay," she said. "Pancakes sound delicious."

"Happy Valentine's Day," he smiled, giving her a kiss.

"Happy Valentine's Day," she replied. "Our first one as a married couple."

"Can you believe we've been married for six months already?"

"Not really," he said. "Is it all going to go by this fast?"

"I hope so," she answered. "If time together starts dragging, that's probably not a good sign."

"Excellent point," he agreed. "Let's go eat."

* * *

Faith and Sebastian had a wonderful night. Sure, it was short because she was tired, but it was still good. Some of her favourite time with him was just spent at home doing nothing, so it was nice to get to spend a couple of hours on Valentine's Day that way.

Still, Sofia knew that something was up with her sister the next day when she walked into the NICU to find her in there monitoring a newborn boy who she and Alex had just operated on.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked. "Last night was supposed to be romantic. I thought you'd be all happy this morning."

"I am," she said. "I just helped save a little boy's life. That's awesome."

"But…?"

"But Peds. is just a tease when you're thinking about starting a family, but your husband needs more time."

"You mean babies weren't his chosen topic of conversation on one of the most romantic nights of the year?" she teased. "What? He's insane!"

"I don't expect him to be ready now," she said. "Really, I don't know if now is the best time. Maybe giving it a couple more months is a good idea. But something's telling me that it's not going to be a simple process to get our family started, and I don't want to be waiting now, and waiting then, and doing a whole bunch of waiting, and waiting, and waiting."

"So what are you saying?"

"That I'm being patient, but it would be great if he'd give me a sign that he's still thinking about it. That's all. I just hope he's not talking himself further and further out of having kids."

"I think he'd tell you if that was the case," Sofia said. "He's always known that you want kids someday. Faith, half of my parents weren't exactly thrilled to find out that I was going to exist. They needed time to get on board, but they did it. Seb will get there."

"I know."

"I have an idea for you."

"What?"

"When I was in med. school, I made a list of things that I wanted to do before I became an intern and ended up even busier than I already was. I didn't exactly have money, so it was mostly things that I could do that didn't cost much."

"That's fun."

"It kept me from losing my mind when I was studying so hard and I just couldn't wait to be an intern already."

"Right," she said. "So you're saying make a list?"

"Yes," she replied. "And do as many cool surgeries as possible. You need to keep your mind off of onesies, diapers, and pacifiers."

"Do I seem crazy?"

"Maybe a little," she smiled. "But I'm sure I'll get to that point one day when I find the right man and settle down. I think it's normal for a woman who wants to be a mom someday. And like you said, for you two, it may not be simple. You don't know details yet. That has to be annoying."

"It is."

"Try the list."

"I will," she said. "Thanks. How was your Valentine's Day?"

"Cody cooked for me. It was romantic. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it."

"Will you admit that what you're doing is called 'dating' now?"

"So maybe it is," she replied. "He sucked me in with caffeine and sex, and now we're a couple."

"Is it so bad?"

"No," she said. "He's a nice guy."

* * *

Faith loved Sofia's list suggestion. It would hopefully help her to be able to patiently wait for Sebastian to be ready to discuss how they would start their family. She didn't want to pressure him by any means, so waiting was the only choice that she had. Additionally, if beginning their little family did take as long as she felt that it may, they would need to give themselves fun things to do in the meantime. By no means did she want their lives to become solely about working or trying to become parents. She knew that work would continue to take up plenty of her time, but filling the rest of it with enjoyable things would be beneficial.

"What are some things that you've been wanting to do?" she asked Sebastian the next day as they ate lunch in his office together.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"My sister told me that she made a list of fun things to do before she started her internship," she explained. "I thought we could make a 'before kids' list. That way, you know that I can still wait, and I know that I'll have more than work to do until we're someone's Mommy and Daddy."

"I've always wanted to watch more movies," he said. "We have a huge collection, but we watch the same ones all of the time. Let's try to watch more of them before we keep getting interrupted by a newborn."

"Okay," she said, writing it down on a pad of paper. "I want to become a better cook."

"You're a good cook," he told her.

"I could be better," she said. "I want to work on it. Oh, and parenting books. I want to read some of those."

"Before we have a baby?" he questioned.

"Well, when we have the baby, then I'll be too busy and too tired to do a ton of reading," she decided.

"Maybe put that one at the bottom of the list," he said, seeing her point, but still not so sure about the idea.

"We could babysit Declan more," she added, writing everything down.

"How would that help you wait for kids?"

"Because we can give him back when we're tired," she explained. "We should take advantage of that while we can."

"True," he laughed. "I know you probably don't want to spend a lot of money, but we should try out a few really nice restaurants."

"I like that one," she smiled. "Oh! Can we get a dog? Even when we have a kid, a dog would be awesome. Whenever Sofia was at Mark's when we were growing up, Hershey was practically my best friend."

"Which just means you were a loser," he joked.

"It means I was a child who loved my dog," she said. "I miss her. Libby too."

"I know. And I've never had a dog. So that would be nice."

"Yay!" she smiled. "And can we start adding more to our savings each month?"

"Good idea. What else?"

"Well, I have a list of surgeries that I really hope to at least see, but that's about me. We can keep adding to the list as we go, though."

"Sounds good."


	12. Nellie

**Thanks again for the reviews. I'm glad that you seem to like the list idea, because I feel like it's going to add a lot of fun to this story.**

* * *

"She'll be okay," Callie promised Arizona one day about a month later. "She gets these twenty-four hour bugs, and she gets over them. She's actually done better with them than I assumed she would."

In order to avoid rejecting her donor heart, Faith had to take immunosuppressant medications. If her body was less able to fight the organ, there was a chance that it wouldn't reject it. However, a less than ideal immune system also meant that she was at greater risk for illnesses. She was able to take some extra precautions to protect herself - and she really didn't get sick very often compared to some other people in her situation because of them - but she wasn't feeling so great that morning.

"I know," she replied. "She just hates being out of the O.R. even though it's probably best that she doesn't operate today."

"Name one surgeon who doesn't hate being out of the O.R.," she responded. "She doesn't have a fever, and she's not vomiting. This'll pass. I'm sure of it. She's helping Mark with the skills lab for the interns, and she told me that she's got some research that she can do for Cristina once that's done. That's Cardio. She's not going to hate everything about today. Even if she doesn't get to see any real patients."

"I still don't like it when she's sick," Arizona explained.

"Neither do I," she agreed. "But we know she'll be fine."

"True."

"I need to take you away more," she said. "When we were in St. Lucia, you were so much less stressed."

"I work with sick children," she defended. "I'm supposed to be stressed. I can't get too stressed because that's not good, but if I didn't stress at all, that would make me heartless. Some stress is to be expected. And I don't care if our children are adults now. I'm their mom. I've worried about them since I knew that they existed. I know I'm more vocal about it than you are these days, but that's just how it's going to be."

She kissed her. As much as she wished that Arizona wouldn't worry like she did, she had to admit that it was actually not a bad thing. She found it sweet. Of course, she also felt similarly. Arizona was right about that. Callie just didn't express it quite as often.

"I love you," she smiled.

"I love you, too," she said. "And you can definitely take me away more. Please."

"I think Bailey would like it if we worked for more than a month before we started planning something else."

"Probably."

* * *

"What time do you get off tonight?" Cody asked his girlfriend.

They had been having a quick breakfast together, but now he had to get back to work. Sofia had been charting while they ate, so she would be able to finish up as long as she didn't receive a page, but she just wouldn't have his company.

"It's supposed to be eight," she answered. "But don't count on seeing me tonight. One of my patients is probably going to have some major post-op complications. Based on his history, he's in for a rough night. Without surgery, he'll die, but..."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I promise we'll do something tomorrow night."

"Okay."

With that, Cody left. It wasn't long before Faith came up and sat down beside her on the gurney that she was sitting on.

"What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be working with my dad right about now?"

"He's running late. He'll call when he gets here. And I'm annoyed by my interns because they're acting like I'm amazing for being here when I'm sick. It's nice that they think that, but it's really no big deal. I don't have a fever. I'm not throwing up. Sure, this changes what I do today just because I won't risk getting people sick if I can help it, but I'm not just going to stay in bed all day. I can still do something around here. It's called liking my job enough to put up with this."

"Right," she agreed.

"In happier news, I'm getting a puppy tonight."

"You know for sure that you get her tonight?"

"They called last night to let us know," she nodded.

In an effort to cross something off of their list and to add to their family – even if they weren't adding a new person to it – Faith and Sebastian had decided to find themselves a dog. When they went to an animal shelter, they were introduced to a six-week-old puppy. Her mother was a Golden Retriever, and her father was a Labrador Retriever. She was perfect, and they knew that they had to have her. They had already decided to name her Nellie. Faith was especially excited that she would be coming home soon.

"Good."

"She has the cutest little bark. It's like she's trying to bark, but she hasn't exactly figured out how yet."

"How did you come up with the name Nellie?"

"Sebastian just thought that it suited her."

"I'll have to come over and meet her when I have time and you're not sick."

"Definitely," she agreed. "She's going to need all of the playtime that she can get."

Her cell phone rang as she said this.

"Is that my dad?"

"Yes, it is," she said as she answered. "Hi, Mark."

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Arizona asked at some point in the afternoon.

Faith was eating a salad, which had to mean that her nausea wasn't as bad right now, but Arizona was still focused on the fact that she wasn't feeling well.

"I'm fine," she told her. "I miss my actual patients, but I'm spending half of my shift focused on nothing but Cardio research. I can't complain. Plus, I'm feeling better."

"For real?" Sebastian questioned.

"No, I'm lying," she teased. "Yes, for real."

"Good."

"Are you sure you don't want to go home?" Arizona asked.

"Mom, I'm not a child anymore. I've taken precautions. I'm not even treating anyone today. Not a single person. I'm being more than careful."

"That's not why I –"

"We've all worked when we weren't feeling so great," Faith said. "You know you have."

"I have."

"Then stop telling me that I shouldn't. Cardio research is clearly the best medicine."

She laughed.

"And a new puppy will help, too," she smiled.

"Madre and I'll have to come over and meet her when you're feeling better."

"Tomorrow," she said. "I already feel better than I did last night or this morning when I woke up."

"Okay."

"Plus, I'm sure Nellie can't wait to meet her grandmas."

"No," Arizona replied. "We're not calling me Grandma until I have a human grandchild."

"You're no fun," she said.

"And somehow we're back to the baby thing," Sebastian realized. "Now we're going to talk about it, aren't we?"

"I'm not pressuring you," Faith assured him. "It's fine."

"Deciding to be Sofia's mom and to have Faith were easily the best choices I've ever made," Arizona said. "I used to think that I didn't want a family, but now I couldn't imagine not having one."

"But it's not that I don't want that," he clarified.

"It's that you can't get past the possibilities?" she wondered.

"Exactly."

"Calliope and I ended up with a micro preemie and another child who had H.L.H.S.," she said. "They're both here. The risk can definitely be worth it."

"It can also be devastating."

"Oh, I know it can."

"I'm not pressuring him," Faith stated again. "You probably aren't allowed to either."

"And that leaves you calling me your dog's grandmother," Arizona replied.

* * *

Faith was correct. Luckily her sickness didn't last long. She had begun feeling ill the night before, but by the time nighttime rolled around again, she was almost back to her old self. In fact, while she waited for Sebastian to return home from the shelter with Nellie, she was trying out a new recipe that Chelsea had taught her. Yet another goal could be crossed off of her list.

She heard the dog whimpering as Sebastian brought her home twenty minutes later. She had just put dinner in the oven, so she went to the door to greet her new pal.

"Hi, Nellie!" she smiled. "Why are you sad? Do you not know where you are?"

She picked her up and started petting her. She knew that the dog was unsure of where she was. She had to figure out these new surroundings before she would feel comfortable.

"I'm your new mommy," she explained. "My mom says she's not your grandma, but I'm definitely your mommy. You're my fur baby, right? It might be cheesy, but it's true."

"What smells so good?" Sebastian asked. "Did you cook?"

"That new chicken dish Chelsea taught me how to make," she nodded.

"So you really are feeling better?"

"I laid down for a few minutes after you left and that helped. I'm only a little queasy now. I don't know how much dinner I'll really eat, but I made it for you."

"Thanks."

"And after dinner, I think Nellie and I need to settle in early," she decided. "My stomach isn't killing me anymore, but I could use a long, long night's sleep."

"Faith, the dog is not sleeping in our bed."

"Not ever?" she wondered.

"Not ever," he replied.

"Daddy's no fun," Faith told Nellie as the puppy licked her hand. "Puppy cuddles are the best. He doesn't know because he's never had a puppy, but he'll learn."

"I might love the dog, but I can think of a much, much better use for our bed," Sebastian said. "Not tonight. I know."

"Sorry. As soon as I'm feeling better, I'd love to take you up on that, though."

He smiled.

"Oh, and you're going to have to fill her food bowl for today," she requested. "People food smells are one thing, but I'm not sure I'm going to handle the smell of dog food very well."

"Yet you cut people open for a living," he said.

"Not today I didn't. And that's different."

"Okay," he laughed.

"Let's go check this place out, Nellie," Faith smiled. "I bought you a pink collar. I think you'll like it."

* * *

_Faith was just fifteen-and-a-half months old, but she was recovering from yet another surgery. She was doing well today, but everyone was wishing that she could just go home already. While that wasn't possible, her moms had been busy making arrangements to bring a little piece of home to her._

_The little girl had been asking for her puppy lately. They were technically not allowed to bring her in, but they were breaking the rules because they just couldn't keep denying her request. It was the least that they could do for her. Therefore, Alex had just helped them to sneak the dog in without anyone who was going to say anything about it finding out._

_She had been in and out of a restful state all day so far, but she woke up when the dog came into the room. She couldn't see her from where she was, but she could hear her._

"_Someone came to see you, Faith Evelyn," Callie told her. _

"_Wub," she smiled._

"_Your Love," Arizona smiled._

_While they were hoping that she would realize that she shouldn't call Hershey "Love" – or "Wub" – they had to admit that it was adorable. They didn't exactly mind that she had given the newest family member her own sweet nickname._

_Mommy gave her a kiss. _

"_How are you feeling now?" she asked. "Better?"_

"_No."_

"_Still not great, huh?"_

"_No."_

_Callie picked her up. Faith had wanted to stay in the bed so far today, but they didn't want the dog to get up on there with her. There was no doubt that Hershey's presence in the bed would likely cause all of the things that Faith was hooked up to to get tangled. _

"_Want to sit with me and pet Hershey?" she wondered._

_She nodded._

_Hershey's tail began wagging as Faith started to pet her. Even if she sometimes forgot to be gentle, the two were clearly best buddies. The toddler hadn't even been around most of the time that they had owned the dog, but she didn't seem to care about that. Hershey adored Faith and Faith adored Hershey._

"_Are you happy to see each other, girls?" Arizona smiled._

"_Yeah," Faith yawned._

_Hershey yawned as well. _

"_You're makin' Hershey sleepy, Baby," Callie said, giving her daughter a kiss._

"_Ow?" she asked._

"_No, Hershey's not sleepy because she had surgery like you," Arizona explained._

"_Oh. Sof?"_

"_Sofia's at school," Callie said. "Mark's going to bring her to visit tonight."_

_Faith smiled._

"_You get to see all of your buddies today," Arizona smiled. "It's a better day for Faith."_

"_Ow."_

"_I know you still feel bad," she told her. "Mommy's looking on the bright side. At least you got to see Hershey today."_


	13. Serious Consideration

"I like these better when they're only for interns," Faith told Mark the following week when his skills lab was for both interns and residents because he had heard that many of the residents needed to brush up on the technique that he was focusing on.

They may have already learned the basics of it, but there was so much more to know. Whether or not the residents liked it, Dr. Bailey and Dr. Avery had asked most of them to go. Unless they were specifically excused, they had to be there.

"Oh, they're not so bad," he laughed. "And I like you. Imagine what it's like for the other ones."

"True," she replied. "But it's not like you purposely favour me. It's not easy."

"It's not supposed to be."

"I know," she yawned. "But I've been up all night."

"Working?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "And then, when I finally did go home to get a few hours of sleep before I had to be back here, Nellie got all excited to see me and started barking. I think my husband might regret getting her now. Not really. But he wasn't exactly thrilled to be woken up."

"When we first got Libby, Hershey was staying with us because you were in the hospital. Well, every few days, both dogs would decide that three in the morning would be a great time to start running around and playing with each other. Then your sister and Max would wake up, and we'd have to get everyone settled back down. Thank God that didn't last very long, but it was definitely not my favourite part of having dogs around."

"I would assume not," she said.

"I hear you're watching Declan tomorrow," he told her.

"Yeah," she replied. "I heard that Lexie has the afternoon off, too. I was kind of confused. I thought for sure you two would –"

"We're going to have him all night Friday," he explained. "I've been told that, on top of how I watch him on Thursdays and Fridays during the day already, that that's plenty. They don't want to burden us."

"But you're Nana and Grandpa," she said.

"That's my point. It's not like we're ever going to mind."

"Right."

"But have fun with him tomorrow."

"I'm sure we will," she smiled. "He and Nellie haven't met yet. That'll either go really well, or it'll go terribly."

"I'm sure they'll love each other."

Faith's pager went off and she knew exactly why. She was supposed to have given out assignments to her interns and then met up with Callie as soon as the skills lab was over. She would be on Ortho that day.

"Oh, joy," she joked. "Hip replacements."

"Do you like any specialties besides Cardio?" he asked.

"Peds., Neuro…" she replied. "There are a few specialties I find interesting. But I've known I wanted to go into Cardio since I was old enough to really understand what went on in Cardio. Probably before that, actually."

"I know," he said. "But even Ortho's more than just hip replacements."

"Oh, today we have a knee replacement scheduled, too!" she told him with a sarcastic sense of enthusiasm. "I know Madre's done really cool things, but today we're replacing a bunch of old parts."

"Isn't that what transplants do?"

"Do not compare a hip replacement to a heart transplant. Transplants are so much better."

"You'll be back to Cardio before you know it," he said. "I'm just giving you a hard time."

* * *

"How did you teach me to be gentle with the dogs?" Faith asked Callie as they operated together.

The videos of her mothers – as well as her sister's father and step-mother – operating had been her first exposure to what an operating room was like from a surgeon's perspective. They had taught her surgical techniques without even realizing it. Therefore, it only seemed natural for her to inquire about other types of wisdom that Callie could pass down while they worked. They were both able to multitask - and the surgery was going well - so she figured that the change of subject would be a welcome one.

"Why?"

"Declan's coming over tomorrow afternoon, and Nellie's so new. I'm not necessarily nervous. She's a mix of two very kid-friendly breeds, and he tends to listen to me, but she's still a puppy and he's still a toddler. We have to teach them to be nice to one another."

"It's not going to happen in one afternoon," she said.

"Oh, I know."

"With you, we just kept telling you to be gentle and to 'show the puppy love,'" she explained. "It's why you called her 'Wub' for a while."

"Aw," one of the scrub nurses replied.

"And now the scrub nurses think I'm adorable," Faith laughed.

"You were," Callie told her. "Then you grew up."

"That's how it works," she pointed out. "So I should just keep reinforcing the right thing to do? And for her? I'm assuming I just keep telling her that she's a good girl?"

"That and giving her space. Knowing Declan, he'll get very, very excited and not want to leave the poor dog's side the whole time. We had days like that with you and Hershey where she had been a little _too_ loved. At some point, taking Declan into another room and letting Nellie relax might be good. Puppies are playful, but she's not used to quite that much play yet. Suddenly there will be this little boy getting down at her level, and he'll be invading her space in a way."

"I know. Sebastian thinks I'm crazy for introducing them now. But if Declan comes over in two weeks, nothing's really going to be all that different. She'll still be a new dog, and we see Declan often, so they might as well meet now."

"Sebastian probably just wishes that Nellie was housebroken first. That'll be interesting."

"We may just hang out outside if it's warm enough," she decided. "That way, Nellie's already out there. All we have to do is keep Declan away from dog poop."

"All you have to do, huh?" she laughed.

"Okay, so it might not be simple. But I'm not going to stop babysitting him because we have a dog. At some point, we'll have a dog and a child of our own. It's doable. Maybe I'm insane for willingly doing it right now, but I don't always want to do things the way that people expect me to do them."

"That's for sure."

* * *

It was no secret that Ortho wasn't Faith's favourite specialty, but Callie loved working with her. Not only did she get to spend the day with her, but she also got to see how Faith's skills had developed. Time had flown, and she was now a considerable part of the way through her second year. She still had things to learn, but she was definitely talented. Cardio would be lucky to have her.

"I think Mark still wishes that Sofia would have done her residency here," Lexie said at the lunch table a little later on.

"You think?" Arizona asked.

"Okay, I know it," she replied.

"He's here all the time," Callie said. "It's not like he doesn't get a chance to see her in action."

"He's already trying to get Declan to say he wants to be a doctor when he's big," Lexie smiled.

"Of course he is."

Sofia came and joined the three of them at the table. Her friends at Seattle Grace Mercy West always wondered why she wanted to spend as much time with her parents as she did, but she didn't see things the way that they saw them. None of their parents were also doctors. They didn't understand the career choice the way that her parents did. They couldn't offer the same advice. Sofia figured that the shared career path was one of the many reasons that she was still so close to her family. While she had needed to complete her residency elsewhere in order to prove herself, she now saw the benefits of having four surgeons for parents.

"Of course who is what?"

"Your dad's trying to get Declan to say that he's going to be a doctor when he's big," Lexie explained.

"You weren't planning to try that?" Sofia asked. "Considering his age, his hand-eye coordination is pretty impressive."

"He's still a baby."

"He'll be two in a few months."

"And I can deal with that in July," she said.

She laughed.

Faith walked over a few minutes after that. She had been monitoring a few post-op patients, but everyone was doing well for now. Still, she had a worried look on her face.

"What?" her sister asked.

"Seb had an appointment with Cristina an hour-and-a half ago, and I can't seem to find either one of them."

"Cristina's on a harvest," Sofia said. "And Seb is probably working. Since this is where we all work."

"Cristina's on a harvest?" she asked.

"That's what one of the interns told me," she replied.

"Oh."

"Sit," Arizona said. "Eat something."

She sat down and helped herself to some of her sister's lunch. This wasn't the first time that they had shared a meal in this way, but Sofia pretended to be all offended anyway.

"Oh, whatever," Faith responded. "What were you talking about before I showed up?"

"Declan," Sofia said.

"Tomorrow's going to be so fun," she smiled. "So exhausting, but so fun."

"You're watching him tomorrow?" Sofia asked.

"Yeah."

"Chelsea asked me, but I had already promised Cody I'd spend some time with him. Apparently dates that take place during the day and somewhere other than here matter to him."

"Crazy," Faith joked.

"But I wish I could hang out with Declan, too."

"Stop by after your date," she suggested.

* * *

Their mothers took that invitation the next day as well. They came over before Declan arrived, though. They had a new toy for Nellie, and they wanted to give it to her.

Sebastian was arriving home just as she began to check it out. Typically, he would still be at work right now, because his hours were usually only during the day. However, he would try to be flexible if he was needed at another time. He had stayed late to work with a patient and her family for a few nights last week, so he had been given the afternoon off on this particular day. Therefore, he was getting home early now.

"Oh, yay," he said, clearly less than pleased when he saw his dog with the toy. "Something else that squeaks."

"After a while, you'll stop paying attention to them as much," Faith promised him.

"Good."

"How was work?"

"Fine."

"Did you see Cristina?" she asked. "I was kind of hoping that you could just reschedule today."

"I did," he told her. "And I'm fine."

"Well, good," she smiled.

He stepped on another puppy toy.

"Will I get used to that, too?" he asked.

"Hopefully," she replied. "Listen, it's a nice day out, so I thought we could have a little picnic lunch outside on the patio table with Declan."

"Okay."

"I'm just hoping he doesn't wear us out too much. I have to work a night shift later."

"I know."

"I guess if I want kids, I'll have to get used to the sleep deprivation that will come along with being a surgeon and taking care of a kid," she said. "I shouldn't complain about babysitting. Not that what I'm doing is complaining, but…"

"Right," Sebastian laughed. "But I hear kids are worth all of that."

"Since our future kids will be the best ones ever, I agree already," she smiled. "Not that I'm trying to talk you into anything."

"I know you aren't," he said. "But you're right. When we're ready, we'll have the best baby that was ever made."

Nellie barked.

"You agree?" Arizona laughed.

Really, she was barking because Maxwell, Chelsea, and Declan were at the door. They let themselves in and Declan was immediately drawn to the dog.

"Who is that, Buddy?" Chelsea asked. "Do you know?"

"Dog," he answered. "Dog, Dada!"

"I see the dog," Maxwell told him. "Her name is Nellie. Can you say 'hi?'"

He waved.

"Tell her your name."

"Declan," he said softly.

"Do you want to pet her?" Arizona asked.

"Yep," he nodded.

"Yes, please," Chelsea prompted him.

They were trying to teach him his manners, and she was sure to point out every opportunity for a "please" or a "thank you." She expected it to take time before he would use these words on his own, but they had to teach him somehow.

"Yep, pwease," he corrected himself.

From her place on the couch, Arizona picked the dog up and held her on her lap. She began giving her soft pets, hoping that Declan would mimic what she was doing.

"Declan's turn," Sebastian said.

The little boy reached out and petted Nellie. He started off a little rougher than he should have, but within a few minutes, he was just gently patting the puppy.

"You're so nice to Nellie," Faith smiled. "Are you going to have fun with her today?"

"Yep."

"I think she likes you," Callie told him.

He looked over at his parents and gasped. The puppy liked him. He wasn't sure how Callie knew that, but he was excited. In his toddler mind, everyone liked him. He was glad that the puppy was no exception.

"You're going to have fun while Mommy and Daddy go have our lunch date, huh?"

"Yep," he nodded.

"And now I don't have to feel bad about leaving him," Chelsea said.

"Why would you?" Faith asked. "You're allowed time to yourselves."

"It's just that we're leaving him this weekend, too. One of my friends is getting married and the wedding's a few hours away, so we're just going to spend the whole night away."

"You'll be gone for a few hours today," Arizona said. "And on the weekend, he'll be with Grandpa and Nana. Other than you, they're his favourite people. You have a day off. Go have lunch. Enjoy it. Calliope and I have to get back to work soon."

"And it's not like you didn't spend the morning with him," Sebastian pointed out. "Right?"

"Did we have fun?" Chelsea asked her son.

He nodded.

* * *

After everyone left, Faith, Sebastian, Declan, and Nellie headed out to the backyard. Declan didn't need a single toy today – even though they had a few little ones for him – because Nellie was enough entertainment.

"Dog, go!" he would yell when he threw something that he wanted her to fetch.

Nellie was a fan of this little game, but she didn't like that her new buddy couldn't throw things as far as her mom and dad could. She would just tip her head sideways and look at him like he was losing his mind.

"Go!" Declan repeated.

"Can I throw it?" Sebastian asked.

He nodded.

When Sebastian threw it, Nellie was quick to chase after it and return it to him. In fact, this was pretty much the first thing that she had learned to do that pleased her owners.

"What do you say, Declan?" Faith questioned.

"Go, Dog!" he yelled.

"She already got it," she said. "Say 'drop it, Nellie!'"

She dropped it.

"Good girl!" Sebastian praised. "Thanks!"

He tossed it again and, this time, both the toddler and the little boy ran after it.

"Declan, are you fetching it now, too?" she asked.

"Declan go," he answered as he stopped running.

"Let Nellie get it," Sebastian said. "She's learning that it's her job, okay? We don't want her getting mad at you. She's not a very good sharer."

"Declan do?" he asked.

"Can you bring me that ball?" Faith asked of one of the toys that they had taken out for Declan that neither he nor the dog had bothered to waste time on.

"Ball?" he repeated.

"You bring me that and Nellie can bring her toy."

"No."

* * *

Other than Declan's insistence that he play fetch as the dog did – and a few times where he was rougher than they would have liked with Nellie – the little play date went well. Declan still thought that tossing food to the ground was hilarious, and Nellie found this habit pretty great, too.

"Are you and Declan friends now?" Sebastian asked the dog. "And we were outside this afternoon, so you didn't pee or poop in the house the whole time. That was my favourite thing about it."

Faith walked into the room. The afternoon with Declan had been a blast, but now she was just planning to relax with Sebastian and Nellie until she had to leave for work.

"What are you two doing?" she asked when she saw that her husband had one of her medical school textbooks out.

"Thinking," he responded. "Or obsessing."

"Over?"

She leaned in and noticed the particular topic that he was reading about. It wasn't really uncommon, but she didn't know what had made him want to know more now.

"Immunosuppressants?" she asked. "You're really okay, right?"

"Right," he promised. "Ask Cristina. I'm fine."

"Then…?"

"Birth defects," he replied. "Some of the meds. you're on can cause birth defects. Today was great. I know babysitting isn't much like parenting, but all of the laughter was infectious. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I could get used to that. I think. I'm giving some even more serious consideration since we last talked about it. Then I look this up and I'm right back to freaking out."

"I can see about switching my meds.," she said.

"Or we can still talk about all of the options, right? With an open mind?"

"Absolutely," she smiled. "So, are we talking now?"

"I just don't know if now is the time. But I've been thinking about it more and more. There's so much to consider. I'm just not ready to go for it yet. I'm trying not to be so nervous about everything by the time that I say I'm ready.

"Alright."

Sofia arrived without knowing that her nephew had gone home. Faith went to the door and opened it up.

"Just you?" she asked. "I was hoping he'd come running to the door with the usual 'Sof! Sof! Sof!' greeting."

"He went home an hour ago."

"Already?"

"They were just having lunch."

"Oh."

"But Seb just told me that he's been seriously thinking about having kids!" she said, excitedly, yet not loudly. "I figured he was thinking about it, but it's nice to hear this now. We've reached serious consideration. That's a good sign. But now he's reading about immunosuppressants and birth defects."

"Because that'll make him want to make a baby ASAP," she teased.

"No," she said. "It won't. I know. And the risks scare me, too. But we have choices. We could change my meds...we could do so many things to become parents."

"I know."

"When he's ready, we'll do more research and make a bunch of appointments."

"You know that if you make an appointment with Aunt Teddy or Cristina about this, they'll tell our moms right away, and then people will be stalking your uterus, right?"

"I'm telling Aunt Teddy and Cristina that they can't say anything," she replied. "Aunt Teddy's my Godmother. She'll listen. I hope. Plus, there's doctor-patient confidentiality."

"That's going to be so hard for Aunt Teddy. Oh! Maybe she'll be retired by the time that Seb is ready."

After delaying it for a while, Teddy was retiring at the end of June. Everyone suspected – and hoped – that she would still be around, though. Retiring from surgery was one thing, but retiring from practicing medicine as a whole just seemed like too much for her.

"No! For one, I'm hoping he's ready soon. And I also really trust Aunt Teddy. Not that I don't trust Cristina. Of course I do, but Aunt Teddy's basically family to us."

"I know."


	14. What's Next?

"Did you pee in the house again?" Faith asked the dog when she walked into the kitchen one morning three weeks later to find Sebastian cleaning up another puddle on the floor.

Overall, Nellie's transition into their family had been a great one. She was only a puppy, so they had dealt with some challenges, but they were making more and more progress with her training by the day. This progress was taking place with everything besides housebreaking her. She had quickly picked up on various tricks and ways to please them – which proved that she was smart – but she was still not going to the bathroom in the backyard all of the time.

"This is the second time this morning," Sebastian complained.

"Already?" she yawned. "Nellie, we've got to do something about that."

"She knows what we're asking her to do," her husband said. "As soon as I started scolding her, she went to the back door. Before I even said anything about 'outside.'"

"You're just a stubborn one, huh?" Faith questioned. "We'll have to work on that. Peeing and pooping in the house isn't allowed."

"How long does this usually take?"

"Usually? I don't know, but we haven't had her for very long. We just have to give it more time."

"Next time she pees in the kitchen twice before you're even down here, I'll come get you to clean it up," he said.

"But look at her sweet face, Daddy," Faith smiled. "She's a good dog. She's just stubborn and not exactly housebroken yet."

"Some people have more than one dog," he said. "I love Nellie, but I think those people with two and three dogs are crazy."

She laughed at Sebastian's opinion. If he thought housebreaking a dog was tough, he would be in for it whenever they did have a baby. Of course, she knew that he knew this. He never seemed to mind changing diapers or anything like that when he was around young children. She just found his impatience with the dog funny considering how patient he was with little ones.

"Some people say that about people with more than one kid, too," she pointed out. "They seem to think that it's worth it."

"That's not the same thing."

"I know," she said. "I'm teasing."

"And we're talking about one baby."

"I know that, too."

They had been having more conversations about his parenthood reservations and why he had them. As much as Faith wished that he didn't let them affect him so much, it was great to be talking about them together. Talking about the "what ifs?" was important. They would get to the details soon. The good news was that Faith no longer thought that it was slightly awkward to bring up their future family. He would talk about it, too.

"One kid at a time," he said.

"That's generally how it works for most people," she smiled.

Nellie barked.

"Did Daddy not fill up your food bowl yet?" she asked. "He's busy. I'll do it, okay?"

She barked again.

"Oh, it's so exciting!" Sebastian said. "I wish I liked breakfast time as much as you do."

Faith gave him a kiss.

"You love her and you know it."

"I know I do," he said. "But she has just peed on the floor twice in the last twenty minutes."

"You should have let her out after the first time."

"Well, I know that now."

* * *

"Your turn!"

Arizona was at work playing with a little boy whose mom and dad were just downstairs getting something to eat. He became anxious when they left him, but having some company seemed to help. While it wasn't always possible for someone to keep him entertained, they did their best to put him at ease when they could. Dr. Robbins had a few minutes, so they were playing a color-related matching game.

After a few seconds of consideration, Ira turned a card over.

"Blue…" he said, turning over another one. "Red! No!"

"No match," Arizona replied. "That's okay. Good try."

Callie came into the doorway. Her wife had paged her about forty minutes ago, but Callie had been unable to come at that time. Now that she had the opportunity, she just wanted to check in.

"You paged me?" she asked.

"I did," she said.

"Hi," Little Ira smiled.

"Hi," Callie replied. "What are you and Dr. Robbins doing?"

"Playin'," he said.

"Dr. Robbins is fun, isn't she?"

"Yep," he agreed, as he flipped over a few cards before it was his turn again.

"I just wanted to know if you know what's up with Sofia," Arizona explained. "She was here with me most of the night, and she just didn't seem like herself."

"She's a grown woman," Callie reminded her. "Don't meddle."

"I'm not meddling."

"If she wants to talk about whatever it is, she'll come to us," Callie said.

Arizona really wasn't trying to be overbearing. She was just close to her children, and she knew them so well. Therefore, when something didn't seem quite right, she was immediately aware of the differences, too.

"You're right."

"I always am," she said.

"Always?"

"Yes."

"I don't know about that."

"You go," Ira said.

"Oh, I should take my turn?" she asked. "Okay. Sorry."

"It okay," he said.

He had been keeping himself occupied. Having Dr. Robbins give him her attention had been fun, but he had now decided that he could flip over the cards early and see where the different colours were ahead of time.

"Alright," she smiled. "Were you being sneaky?"

"Yeah," he giggled.

* * *

"Good morning," Sofia smiled, handing Cody a cup of coffee.

Arizona definitely knew what she was talking about. Sofia hadn't been in the best of moods last night. She hadn't said anything to her mom, just because she had assumed that her mood would improve right about now.

"Hi," he said.

His tone wasn't one of happiness at all. Sofia got the idea that this wasn't going to go as she thought it would.

"You can't even smile?"

"You couldn't even go out last night," he replied. "And I know you work a lot. I get that. I've dated a few other people in this hospital before. I know that the surgeons are busy. I do understand."

"But you don't like it."

"I don't like that you could have had last night off, but you chose to work."

"I'm never going to know everything that there is to know. That's not the way that surgery works. I wanted to be here to see a pro-"

"It's just frustrating to have to schedule time with you like that," he explained. "I'd like to be able to go to a movie without having to plan it two weeks in advance. I know work is important to you, but I'm not a saint."

"I know. So you're mad at me now?"

"I don't know what I am. Mad isn't the word for it."

* * *

"Boyfriends are difficult," Sofia complained later in the day when her sister joined her on a case.

"Why?" she asked as she picked up the patient's chart.

"Cody resents my job," she answered. "Only he's also saying that he gets it. It's like he's supportive, but not."

"What?"

"He said that he understands how much I work, and he's not mad, but he doesn't know the word for what he is. Any advice?"

"You're asking me? Sof, I married my first and only real boyfriend. I don't understand guys any better than you do. It's not like I have loads of experience with so many men."

"Well, Seb married you. You must be better at this than I am."

"You really care, don't you?" Faith asked.

She had seen her sister with boyfriends before, but she hadn't seen her obsessing over a problem with one of them since her high school years. Sofia didn't really feel the need to spend her time worrying about men. If a relationship wasn't working for one reason or another, she tended to end it before it got to a point where it would hurt her. It was a wall that she knew she put up, but it worked for her. She had her career, and she wanted that to be her main focus for now. This was different. Faith could tell that the conversation with Cody was getting to her. She was going against her usual ways.

"I might," she said, not fully wanting to admit it yet.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, but I love my job. I want more than that someday, but I also want it with someone who wants me to have what I want."

"Agreed."

"How does Seb not hate how much you work?"

"We decided a long time ago that that's just something that we don't fight about. It is what it is. I'm home when I'm home, we're here together a lot, and that's how it'll be. We try not to dwell on the time that we're not together. We want to spend the time that we are together not fighting about it."

"So you married the perfect guy, basically," she laughed. "Good to know. Perfect guys are a common thing, right?"

"He's not perfect," she said. "He's really not. But it's just fighting over something that we can't change, so what's the point? We try our best not to make it a problem. It still is sometimes, though."

"Well, yeah."

"I'm sure it'll become more of an issue when we have kids, so let me know how you and Cody handle it this time."

"If."

"What?"

"I hope we do, but I'd be stupid to assume. This isn't the first time he's said something like this. I even knew when we got together that we wanted different things."

"Mom and Madre wanted different things. Your dad and Lexie didn't exactly –"

"So it's okay to change what people want for their lives?"

"Well, no."

"Mom and Lexie got on board because I'm great and they knew it," she joked. "They actually changed their thought processes. Their goals shifted. They grew to want new things. This is different. He wants me to be less dedicated. Is it bad that I don't want to be that for him?"

"You're being honest," she said. "I don't think it's bad."

Callie had been treating a boy with a dislocated shoulder on the Peds ward. When she saw the looks on her daughters' faces, she couldn't help but go over and ask what was up. Usually if one of them looked down, the other was trying to cheer them up. This time, they both looked deep in thought.

"Okay, your mom said something was off about you, and I told her to leave you alone, but now you've brought Faith down with you."

"Boyfriend problems," Sofia said. "Cody hates how much I work, but he understands and he's not mad. He just…it's tense, and weird, and the worst part about it is that it matters to me."

"They're called emotions," Callie told her.

"I don't do boy problems. I haven't since high school. It's not me."

She laughed.

"Wouldn't it be great if that was how those things worked? Things would have been so easy if your mother and I could have just turned off our feelings. But who knows if we'd still be together if that were the case."

"I log more hours in the O.R. than any other Cardio Fellow."

"I know you do."

"I'm proud of that."

* * *

Even if it wasn't Cardio, Faith typically didn't mind working on the Peds. ward with Sofia or Arizona. Today wasn't typical, though. For starters, they lost a patient. On top of that, Sofia and Cody had talked yet again and that didn't seem to lighten Sofia's mood at all. In fact, it may have made it worse. It had been a long day that day.

"Nellie!" Faith smiled when the dog greeted her at the door. "How was your day? Was it good?"

"She hasn't peed in the house since I got home," Sebastian, who had already been home for four hours at that point, stated.

"Yay!" she cheered. "You went outside?"

"She did," he nodded. "Right, Nellie?"

"How was your day?" Sebastian asked her. "We didn't even see each other."

"We lost a patient and Cody and Sofia aren't seeing eye to eye on things," she explained. "Therefore, working with her was sort of sad today."

"Sorry," he replied, giving her a kiss. "But I finally made the pizza you wanted to try."

Due to their medical histories, they rarely ate fast food. Of course, they broke the rules and ate some things that were not so good for them every once and a while, but they didn't like to make a habit of it. Still, they wanted to be able to eat healthy variations of some of those foods, so they were always looking for recipes. Lately Faith had been meaning to try a new pizza one.

"Oh, yum," she smiled. "Thanks."

As was usually the case when she worked until that time, Faith was hungry already. Therefore, they quickly sat down to enjoy their pizza.

"Hey, I want to talk about something," Sebastian said as they ate.

"Can it wait until tomorrow? Please? I've been listening to my sister all day. Not that I mind because we're women and we rant sometimes."

"Never about me, right?"

"Never," she laughed. "At least this time she ranted in English. It's the Spanish ones that are the really bad ones. But I'm just kind of sick of talking. We'll talk in the morning, okay? It's nothing crucial, is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. "But you want to have this talk, Faith."

"What happened?"

"Nothing," he assured her again. "Will you relax?"

"What is it?"

"I've decided that I'm ready to start doing whatever it is we have to do to start a family," he revealed.

"You are?" she asked.

"I am," he smiled. "I know we still have a lot of discussions ahead of us before we actually have a baby here, but I'm ready."

"You're sure."

"Are you trying to get me to change my mind?" he questioned. "I'm sure, Faith. The unknowns are still scary, but hopefully we can get some answers to those."

"If I weren't sitting across from you right now, I'd kiss you," she said, unable to get the grin off of her face. "Where do we start? What do you think?"

"Oh, we're discussing it right now?" he replied. "What happened to you having a bad day and not really wanting to talk?"

"Are you kidding me?! You're ready to talk about this. About the how. The details. Let's talk! Let's figure out what's next."

He laughed.

"We're not going to be going to bed any time soon, are we?" he smiled.


	15. Pregnancy?

"_How's it going?" Callie asked sixteen-year-old Faith as she worked on a school project._

_She was taking a family studies course as her elective that semester, and one of the assignments in the course was about the impact that having a child with a birth defect or some other type of special need could have on families. The students had to explain the condition that they chose and then present research about the specific ways in which it might affect a child and their family. To no one's surprise, Faith had decided to make her presentation about hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It was not nearly as well-known as many of the other topics. Also, most students had to rely on articles, books, and Internet sources for the vast majority of their information, but she had access to doctors and other families who had first-hand experience with it. _

"_Good," she replied. "I've interviewed you and Mom, Aunt Teddy, Uncle Brady –" _

"_I love that you call him 'Uncle Brady,'" Callie smiled._

"_Well, he's my doctor, but he married my Godmother. I call her my aunt, so I feel obligated to call him my uncle. But he's still Dr. Brady to me, too. So Uncle Brady. Though, I still call him Dr. Brady at his office. 'Uncle' feels weird there, and I don't want people to think that he's actually treating his niece."_

"_Right."_

"_Anyway, I've interviewed them, Nerissa, Wren, both Genevieve and Gavin, and Adler. All I need now is Sofia."_

"_Sofia?" she asked._

"_I want the whole family's perspective," she said. "People realize that these types of things can make life hard on the parents and the child with them, but they forget about the fact that siblings are involved, too. I mean, Sofia has memories of all of my surgeries. I know I had them and I know they weren't fun, but I don't remember them."_

"_True." _

"_And I don't have H.L.H.S. anymore. That's why I'm also interviewing families besides ours, and why I didn't even bother interviewing Sebastian. He doesn't have it anymore, and he doesn't remember having it, really."_

_Arizona came into the room when she heard what Callie and Faith were talking about. She had really tried to step back and let Faith make her own choices about what to present, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to hear about all of the plans._

"_You're still working on that, huh?"_

"_Yeah," she said. "I want it to be the best that it can be. I want to show as many perspectives and personal stories as possible. Most people won't get to talk to people with whatever they're presenting about. I had it. I feel like my presentation has to be ten times better because of that."_

"_Oh, it will be," she said. "Just make sure you don't get too detailed either."_

"_I'm not," she replied. "But I have another question for you two. Just out of curiosity."_

"_What is it?" Callie wondered._

"_Wren, Gavin, and Genevieve all said that they didn't see it coming. I know no one really thinks about H.L.H.S. being a possibility when they get pregnant. Even doctors don't. It's rare. It's crazy that we know other people with it, actually. But they didn't even have the feeling that anything at all was wrong before their ultrasounds. You've said that you couldn't shake a nervous feeling. I know you didn't think I had H.L.H.S., but you're the only ones to say that you had worries that the others didn't. Do you think that's just because you're surgeons?"_

"_Maybe," Callie said. "But I think it's mostly because of your sister's birth. After all of that, it seemed way too simple to just have this perfect little baby."_

"_Hey," Arizona replied. "They were both perfect. They were sick, but they were perfect."_

"_I know," she smiled. "You know what I mean."_

"_So, if Sofia's birth hadn't been the way that it was, you don't think that you would have had the nerves that you did? Or the dream that you did, Mom?" Faith asked._

"_It's hard to say," Arizona said." I know it sounds weird, but I do feel like that dream started preparing me. It was like all of the evidence up until that point was pointing to a healthy baby, so I was just being paranoid. Even after having the dream, the logical part of me thought that you were okay. But still, I had had it and it had stayed with me. I don't know what that means, but that's what happened. I don't really even believe that dreams mean much, but I had a feeling."_

* * *

The Friday before Mother's Day was a big day for Faith and Sebastian. Even though they had been talking about their options together for the last couple of weeks, they had yet to take any other steps in their process yet. That was soon to change. They would be meeting with Cristina, Teddy, and Nerissa at Faith's regularly scheduled appointment. This one would be different from any other because the team of doctors would be discussing a possible pregnancy with them.

They had originally thought that they wouldn't share this information with their families. They didn't want them to be impatiently waiting for a baby to arrive when that might take a while. Sure, everyone was already aware that Faith had been wanting to start a family, but they still didn't want to feel any added pressure to actually start one. Even if no one was actually going to pressure them, they had worried about it.

Still, they assumed that their families – especially Faith's – would probably figure it out anyway. No matter how their child came to be, it would involve plenty of planning and more than a few meetings. Eventually the family members that they worked with would start to wonder where they were going. Therefore, they decided just to tell them.

"Why are we here?" Arizona asked when they were paged to a corner of the hospital basement.

"They have news," Callie, who had gotten down there first, explained.

"Okay, but why here? It's weird down here."

"It's a good place to study," Faith said. "I like it."

"Get to the point," Sofia replied. "What's this news?"

"Well…." she smiled.

"Are you pregnant?!"

"I told you that Seb was still considering things just a few weeks ago," Faith laughed. "Nothing, even getting pregnant, is only going to take weeks for us. That would be bad in our situation. No, I'm not pregnant."

"Then what?" Arizona wondered.

"We've got a meeting with Aunt Teddy, Cristina, and Nerissa today," she explained. "To see if pregnancy's a good option. Seb's not so sure, but we're still looking into it. And if that doesn't work out, we'll figure out something else. Basically, one day, you're going to have a grandbaby. Don't get too excited, because this might end up taking years. I know you know that, but –"

"Yay!" Arizona exclaimed.

"You haven't changed one bit in all of these years," Callie said.

Of course, this was only partially true. Parenthood – especially being Faith's mothers – had changed both of them in a way. However, that young, bubbly side of Arizona was still there.

"And that's not not getting too excited," Sebastian added. "'Yay!' is not a calm response."

"Sorry," Arizona replied. "I just have a feeling that grandbabies are the best kinds of babies. Lexie and Mark never stop talking about Declan. I can't wait to be one of those grandmothers. The kind who has a house full of pictures, and who goes on and on talking about all of the milestones. Oh! And the spoiling. I can't wait for the spoiling."

"Again, not a calm response," he told her.

"Sorry. I'll have to work on that."

"How did you not want kids at one point?" Sofia asked. "That's impossible. Hypothetical grandbabies have you all full of glee. There isn't even a baby yet. There aren't even really concrete plans for one. They're just looking into options."

"Exactly," Faith said. "Seb's a little nervous about today."

"I'm only nervous because I think that your 'open mind' will probably close as soon as you hear that pregnancy is possible. 'Possible' and 'good idea' are not the same thing," he pointed out.

"I know that. I'm not going to become dead-set on any option yet. I promise. As long as you won't either."

"I won't either."

"Then don't be so nervous."

"However your baby comes to you will be just fine," Arizona assured them. "Sofia came to me in the way that I probably would have least liked her to at the time –"

"Hey!" Sofia exclaimed.

"But you're mine and I love it," she finished. "I'm just saying that I didn't expect to come back from Africa to hear that your madre was pregnant by your dad. But you turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen for us. All of us. Now we have this happy blended and extended family that I didn't think was possible."

"I know. I was just kidding."

"I am hoping that no options are completely ruled out, though," Faith said. "I kind of want a choice. Even if there's only one really good choice to make. I don't like to be told that I absolutely cannot do something."

"We know," Callie said.

"Let us know how it goes, okay?" Arizona asked.

"No telling anyone else," Faith warned. "And no talking about it with Aunt Teddy, Cristina, or Nerissa. We want to make our decision with the information that we seek out. We love you all, but we don't really need five million opinions coming at us."

"Understood," Callie agreed.

* * *

"You really want them to say that a pregnancy is an okay choice, don't you?" Sebastian asked as they waited for all three of the doctors to come into the room later that day.

"For the thousandth time, I really want us both to be open-minded," she replied. "Stop saying that. Half of my family isn't biologically related to me. I don't have to be pregnant to be a mom. There's no doubt in my mind about that. With that said, I'd be lying if I said that I don't sometimes think about experiencing a pregnancy. Plus, pregnancy would be the least expensive option. Not that money is the deciding factor, but it is one of them. I know you're nervous about it, but let's just see what they have to say."

"That's a good point," he said.

When the doctors came in, Cristina took care of Faith's basic appointment first. Before going any further, she needed to make sure that there were no new concerns. Luckily, there weren't.

"So, you want to talk about getting pregnant?" Teddy asked when that was over with.

Teddy had officially put Cristina in charge of both Faith and Sebastian's care. Retirement was just around the corner at this point, so all of her long-term patients had been given to other doctors. Yet, Faith had asked for her opinion and she definitely wanted to weigh in.

"Yeah," she nodded. "We know we have a lot to think about, but this seemed like the best place to start. Pregnancy after a heart transplant is possible. Seb wants to hear more about the risks, and I want to know if it's possible in my case specifically."

"And also what we could be facing genetically," Sebastian added.

"Right," Nerissa said. "Which is why I'm here."

Like Addison, Dr. Nerissa Kaye had also studied genetics. However, even though she had simplified it, there was more than one reason that she was there. She also needed to inform them of the possible ways in which pregnancy with a donor heart could affect a baby.

"You've done really great with your donor heart," Teddy told her. "We've had to switch your meds. and change dosages a few times, but overall, you've had very few problems. By your age, a lot of people who have had transplants as toddlers have either had second transplants or other issues. You're one of the 'healthier' cases I've seen."

"I know."

"But that doesn't mean that a pregnancy wouldn't be considered high risk," Cristina said.

"I know that, too."

"What exactly are these risks, though?" Sebastian asked.

As the only one who wasn't a surgeon, he felt somewhat out of the loop. He knew about his and Faith's medical condition, but he needed to know more about how a pregnancy could change that. He wasn't very aware of that part. He knew that things could happen, but he wanted as much information as possible about the specifics.

"An increased risk of hypertension, rejection, or infection for starters," Teddy said.

"Or preeclampsia," Nerissa added. "And the chance of a preterm delivery seems to rise, too. Somewhere around twelve percent of births in the U.S. each year are preterm. But with transplant cases, I've seen studies show that the percentage can actually be as high as thirty percent."

"This doesn't necessarily mean that any of these things will happen to you," Teddy clarified. "But it's a good thing that you get all of the information."

"My meds. can be changed, right?" Faith questioned. "To avoid possible birth defects. The immunos-"

"They can," she nodded.

"But you know how complicated some med. changes can get," Cristina said. "You're doing so well right now."

"So you don't think she should do it?" Sebastian asked.

"That's not my decision," she replied. "And I'm not necessarily saying that. I'm happy for transplant recipients who are going on to lead full lives. But changing things may not be a smooth transition from one med. to another. And Faith's done so well with the heart that she has now. It's impressive that she's kept that heart for as long as she has. If things are going well right now –"

"I know," Faith agreed. "I thought about that, too. I don't take having this heart for granted at all. The day hasn't come that I need a new one yet, but it definitely could. Rejection is a very real possibility. If I'm doing well now, maybe we should just keep things the way that they are. If we make adjustments that don't need to be made, we could possibly create issues. We might not, but we don't know."

"Exactly."

"Okay," she said. "What about the chances of passing H.L.H.S. on to the baby?"

"Or something similar. That happens, too," Sebastian added.

"Knowing that I was meeting with you today, I did some research," Nerissa told them. "I couldn't find a single study that relates to your situation."

"I didn't think you'd be able to," Faith said. "The odds of two people with H.L.H.S. or who have had it before a transplant not only getting together, but also both being healthy enough to consider a family are…"

"It's not common," she said. "You two only are because of your transplants."

"We know."

"So, there's no way to know what the odds are?" Sebastian asked.

"Well, there was one study done that suggested that the odds of a baby being born with H.L.H.S. if one parent and one sibling had it were twenty-one percent. And that's just a parent and a sibling. That was the closest that I could get for you," the doctor explained.

"So it's safe to assume that the risk would be greater for two parents," Faith said. "What about other heart defects?"

"In that same scenario, the odds of another type of heart defect were twenty-five percent."

"It seems like a lot of scary news," Teddy said. "And it is. But there is also a chance that you will be able to stay healthy and have a healthy baby. It's been done. It's possible if you'd like to try. I know I'll be retired, but I'll still be around. You'll have me and Cristina to keep an eye on your heart. Nerissa's extremely good at what she does, too. Despite our reservations and the statistics, if you want to do this, we'll do whatever we can to have the best outcome possible."

* * *

"So, are you super fertile and healthy enough to have a baby one of these days?" Sofia asked when she and Faith were still at work that night.

"Don't know about the fertility part yet," she said, not even taking her eyes off of her laptop screen. "We'll probably get tested later since we want to be able to think about surrogacy. We do want to know if our meds. have affected any of that stuff. But pregnancy's been ruled out."

"Oh."

"It's possible and we could go for it if we wanted to, but the risks don't seem worth it. Sure, there's a chance that we could have a healthy baby, but that's if it doesn't have H.L.H.S. or another defect. Not to mention the other things that are more likely to happen, too. And we can't even truly find out what the odds are for us. Plus, the risks to me…"

"It's a lot," Sofia said.

"Sebastian just kept thinking that he didn't want to lose me, and I kept thinking that I didn't want to risk Michael's heart like that. It's mine, but it's his. To me, it doesn't feel right to put it at risk just so that I can have a baby in the same way that most women do. Especially because D.N.A. is just one part of it. We could do it. It's not like there's a ninety percent chance of rejection. But we talked after the meeting and both of us just don't feel like it's our goal now. We might still have a biological child using a surrogate if we decide to take the genetic risk. Or maybe we'll use a surrogate and donors. Or we may adopt. I'm looking up surrogacy and adoption right now, actually. But this won't happen the old-fashioned way."

"Sorry," she replied.

Despite Faith's medical issues, Sofia never really thought of her as being much different. She had been through surgeries and she took medications, but she still had a good quality of life. It was times like this that reminded everyone that she still faced challenges as a result of her condition.

"Thanks," she smiled. "But please don't say that again."

"What? I'm being all supportive here."

"I know," she said. "But 'sorry' implies that there's something to be sad about. Ultimately, there isn't. I'm going to be someone's adoptive mom. Or intended mom. Or something. A mom. I'm going to miss out on a pregnancy, but that's such a small part of it. That's forty weeks. The rest of it is the best part. So I'm glad that you got the 'sorry' out of your system now. Just because it was the first option we looked into doesn't mean it's the one we necessarily thought would happen for us. I will not be thinking about my empty uterus when I'm meeting my eventual child. I know some people who can't have children feel sad about it, and I'm not taking away from that. That's them, and my heart breaks for the women that we see coming in here with fertility issues or pregnancy losses. But I'm okay with being a little different."

"Okay then," Sofia said. "I'm not sorry then. Congratulations on being one step closer to surrogacy or adoption."

"Thank you," she smiled. "That's enough from me. What about you?"

"Do you really want to hear about my day?"

"Sure. It'll distract me from all of this adoption and surrogacy stuff," she said. "They seem really, really complicated. They involve human life, so they should be, but wow."

"Cody and I officially broke up today," she confirmed.

They had been growing further and further apart in the last few weeks, so this was not a surprise. That didn't mean that it felt good, though. She had wanted to try to work out their issues. However, it just wasn't going to happen.

"Sorry."

"Don't be," she replied. "I'll go home, wallow in self-pity for a bit, and then I'll move on. We're still going to be friends."

"That's good."

"I want him to have what he wants and he wants me to have what I want."

"Good."

"And I also found out that Max is bringing strawberry crepes to the Mother's Day thing on Sunday," she smiled. "Those can make anyone feel better about anything."

"Just the strawberry ones?" Faith asked.

"You love those."

"But I also love the blueberry ones. I was hoping for both. I might have to give him a call. Our family Mother's Day breakfast is one of the occasions during which I eat exactly what I want. Well, besides bacon. I avoid that most of the time, but still. I want to _eat everything_."

"It's Mother's Day. Not Sister's Sister Day."

"I know."

"Was that offensive?" she asked. "Since motherhood just became a little harder for you to achieve? I didn't mean it like that. You'll get many, many Mother's Days."

"Not offensive," she replied. "At least not to me. We haven't been trying, and trying, and trying. We just started. I'm not feeling jealous of moms just yet."

"Good."

* * *

"They've ruled out pregnancy," Callie told Arizona.

She had received a text from Faith just before she and her wife were about to get into bed.

"Because Teddy, Cristina, and Nerissa told them to, or because they feel like it's best to do something else?"

"Because they feel like it's best to do something else," she said. "Now she's feeling overwhelmed, though. Because there's so much information to consider about surrogacy and adoption, too."

"I know."

"And she'll come across opinions of total strangers that make her feel bad for choosing one over the other," Callie said. "I haven't told her that, but she will. We did. Remember when we were trying for her and I wasn't getting pregnant, so we decided you'd carry her? We had people ask us why we wouldn't just adopt as if we were against it. We weren't."

"Not at all. But it wasn't for us," she agreed. "If we adopted, there would be no Faith Evelyn. We'd have a second child, but not her. And if people who have adopted hadn't, they wouldn't have their kids. Can you imagine Meredith and Derek without Zola? Or Addie and Jake without Henry?"

"Exactly."

"Faith and Sebastian will figure out how their baby will become their baby. And only they will know when they feel that feeling."

"Right."

"And we'll be the best grandmothers," she smiled. "Even if it's years and years down the road."

"I hope it's not for their sake," Callie said. "But yes, we will."


	16. The Sharing Of News

Sebastian sat there watching his wife carefully apply her mascara. It was Mother's Day, and they would be going over to Callie and Arizona's to celebrate with them and Lexie. After that, they would be headed to see his mom. He couldn't really figure out why she felt like she needed makeup. It was just family. It wasn't like anyone would be judging her looks. Plus, even if Faith was judged based on her looks, she was absolutely gorgeous.

"I'll never understand why you put all of that stuff on your face."

She laughed.

"You say that like I'm obsessed with makeup," she said. "I don't wear that much of it."

"I know, but you don't even need any of it."

She smiled.

"Agree to disagree?"

"Or you could just admit that all of that is unnecessary."

"Whatever," she said.

He went silent again. This time his thoughts had drifted back to the decisions that they had to make regarding their future parenthood. There was plenty to discuss, so they had made a point of sitting down together to talk about it daily. Even just deciding what to do – let alone doing it – was a major task. It never completely left their minds.

"What?" she asked.

"Are you leaning towards one or the other?"

"Surrogacy or adoption, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"Not yet," she replied. "The idea of being a part of our baby's whole story if we go with surrogacy is nice, but I don't need it to be that way."

"It just isn't the most important thing."

"Of course not. In the long run, it doesn't make a difference. I'm just saying. In our case, genetics may not be a reason to choose surrogacy, but if we're looking for one, that might be it. That it's our child from the very beginning and we know that. With adoption, there are more unknowns."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I don't think I'd want to use our own egg and sperm if we went with a surrogate. It would be nice to see what a combination of the two of us looks like, but it still puts our baby at risk for birth defects."

"Would you be okay with using the surrogate's egg?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said. "Then the situation gets more complicated. And more expensive, too."

"I know. Because a formal adoption might be necessary."

"Exactly. Not that either one is cheap, but surrogacy's probably already going to be more expensive," he pointed out. "Using the surrogate's egg wouldn't exactly help us be able to afford it."

"Nope," she agreed. "And adoption can be a beautiful thing, too. Becoming our child's parents at any point will still be becoming our child's parents."

"I say we make some appointments," he told her. "With the adoption agencies and surrogacy centers that you looked up. Maybe once we're at one of these places, things will be a little clearer."

They really didn't know what to think. There were honestly pros and cons to both options and all of the details were confusing them. It felt like the right time to bring in a little help. People who dealt with these options for a living would be able to talk to them about the realities of both choices.

"That's what I'm hoping," she said. "I don't even know how to go about choosing just one place to meet with, though."

"Then we'll meet with a few," he decided. "Just to get information."

"Okay."

"Who knows, maybe next year will be your first Mother's Day."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," she warned, even though they were sharing the same thought.

* * *

"There," Arizona smiled as she put both of their Mother's Day floral arrangements on the table. "Now it looks nice."

Both of the ladies had gotten each other flowers for the day. They usually didn't do this because they didn't need more than one arrangement at a time. However, now that she had used them to decorate the table for their Mother's Day gathering, Arizona was thinking twice about that reasoning. She kind of liked them both sitting there side by side.

"Good," Callie replied.

They heard their front door open and Sofia walked into the kitchen a minute later. She put down a fruit tray that she had brought. Her brother was a chef, so she tended to aim low in terms of her contributions to meals like this. It never really matter compared to everything else.

"Happy Mother's Day," she told her moms.

"Thank you," they both said.

"I'm the first one here?" she asked.

"You are," Arizona nodded. "Everyone else is on their way."

"Oh," she said. "I didn't think I was going to make it for a while. Last night was so busy at the hospital. I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to leave so that I could sleep."

"Me neither," Callie agreed.

"I realize that I say this on every holiday, but it's heartbreaking to see how many kids we had to admit the night before Mother's Day."

"We spent a Mother's Day there with your sister once," Arizona told her.

"I know."

"Faith was doing well at that point, though. It could have been worse," Callie said. "It was one of our better days in the hospital."

"Still, though," Sofia said. "That's just not what any mom wants. Not that they ever want their child hospitalized, but especially not around a holiday."

"No," Arizona agreed. "But thankfully, that's behind us. We can just enjoy today."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Even if I feel weird being the only one here without someone. Everyone's married or committed, and then there's me."

"I thought you didn't want a relationship?" Callie asked. "I know you were with Cody, but that just happened. You didn't seek something out."

"And then we broke up," she added. "Now I've got feelings about it."

"You'll find someone," Arizona assured her. "Why wouldn't you? You're smart, gorgeous, talented…"

"And you're biased."

"Still."

* * *

Declan wasn't taking his eyes off of the cinnamon roll that Sofia had on her plate while everyone ate. The little boy had just told his mom that he was all finished with his meal, but he had clearly changed his mind now that he saw what his aunt had.

"Would you like a piece?" she asked.

Nellie, who had come along with Faith and Sebastian, ran right over. She was definitely hoping that Sofia would share with her. She had already been going from person to person trying to get each of them to drop something to the floor for her. So far, no one had caved.

"Not you!" Faith laughed at her. "Nellie, please don't beg. Nobody likes it."

"Sof?" Declan asked.

"Yes?" Sofia replied. "Do you want some?"

He nodded.

"Can you ask with your words?" she wondered. "Say 'yes, please!'"

"Yes, pwease," he tried to repeat.

She tore off a small piece and handed it over. Declan put it in his mouth as soon as he possibly could.

"Don't choke," Grandpa told him. "Careful, Buddy."

"Declan, what do you say?" Maxwell asked him when he had swallowed.

"Tank you," he said.

"You're such a polite boy," Lexie smiled. "We really like it when you use your manners, you know."

"Yeah?"

"We do."

Faith smiled. If Declan was this adorable now, what would it be like with two little ones at the table during events like this one? She couldn't wait to see how her own child would fit into the mix. She imagined that the two would get along well, but that they would also team up to cause trouble at some point in their lives. It would be a welcomed sort of trouble, though.

"All of this cuteness is making it harder to wait for our own kid," she said.

"What?" Mark asked.

"Are you pregnant?" Chelsea wondered.

"Why does everyone ask that?" Sebastian replied. "An accidental pregnancy would be bad for us."

"Okay, then have you been trying?" Lexie questioned.

"You didn't even tell them?" Faith asked.

When they had asked Callie, Arizona, and Sofia not to share their plans with anyone, they didn't exactly mean that. They figured that Mark and Lexie would find out, and that was okay. They may not have been Faith's father and step-mother, but she was still close to them. She had no problem at all with them knowing that they were eventually going to be adding to the family.

"You told us not to," Callie said.

"Well, thanks," she smiled. "But it's them. When I said that, I meant that we didn't want the entire hospital knowing what we were up to. You could have told them."

"Oh."

"Would somebody like to tell us now?" Maxwell asked.

"We're trying to decide between surrogacy and adoption," she explained. "We're too nervous about the risks of a pregnancy, but we definitely want a family."

"Declan, you'll have a little playmate one day," Chelsea smiled.

"It could be quite a while," Faith warned. "If we choose surrogacy, the surrogate may not get pregnant right away. And adoption usually means that there is a lot of waiting, too."

"It's still exciting."

"What are you leaning towards?" Mark asked. "Do you know?"

"No," Faith said. "Both are so expensive. I'm sort of worried about choosing one and not being able to afford it. I know we can afford a baby, but can we afford to pay for round after round of I.V.F. or a really expensive adoption?"

"How much do they cost?" Maxwell asked.

"It varies," Sebastian said. "Surrogacy depends mostly on how many rounds of I.V.F. we'll need to pay for. Adoption doesn't have a set price either. It can be a few thousand, or it can be more like thirty or forty thousand. We keep reading different estimates, but it all depends on the type of adoption and the agency."

"Are you basing your decision on how much you can afford to spend?" Arizona asked.

"Not necessarily," Faith said. "But it's a consideration. That's just what it could take to get a child home. We still have to be able to raise it."

"Right."

"We could make a decision, but not be able to afford to go through with it right away. I'm hoping that's not the case, but it's possible. Even if we take out a loan."

"It will be worth it all whenever it happens," Callie said.

"Definitely."

* * *

Declan was cuddled up in his mommy's lap after everyone finished eating. He hadn't exactly slept well the night before, and that was showing now. She was hoping that he would just drift off to sleep easily, but she didn't really think that that would be how it would work out.

"Should we leave soon so that you can go have an early nap?" she asked, giving him a kiss.

"No," he refused.

"I think you need one," she told him.

"Oh. Mama?"

"What?"

He yawned.

"You're sleepy?" she questioned.

"Yeah."

As the little boy sat there, he began to play with his mom's fingers. He was doing this absentmindedly, and he didn't think anything of it. However, it became a big deal when Lexie noticed something. There was a ring on Chelsea's finger today. That had never been there before.

"Were you not going to say anything?!" she exclaimed.

No one else had noticed the ring yet, so they had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. They had been discussing a case that Callie worked on the day before, and suddenly Lexie seemed overly excited about some mystery realization.

"What are you talking about?" Sofia asked.

"It might have to do with this," Chelsea smiled, holding up her hand.

"Hey!" Declan complained.

"Can Mommy just show everyone my new ring?" she asked. "One minute."

"Details!" Faith requested. "When did that happen?!"

Maxwell laughed. It was never any secret that they would get married someday. That had always been the plan, but they just hadn't rushed it. They had been happy just to be together with their son. However, they had decided that it might be the right time to get engaged recently.

"We've been talking about it," he explained. "Actually, that day that you babysat right after you got Nellie was the first time that it came up in a while."

"So you knew it was coming?" Sofia asked.

"Well, everyone knew that," she replied. "I knew we'd be getting engaged soon, but I didn't know how he'd propose. He and Declan woke me up with the ring this morning. We were going to say something earlier, but we didn't want to take away from Faith and Seb's news when they started talking about it."

"Congratulations," Sebastian smiled.

"Thanks," they both said.

"Everybody's got news but me," Sofia said. "They're engaged, they're somehow becoming parents, and then there's me who just broke up with a great guy."

"Because he wasn't _your_ great guy," Faith told her. "You'll find the right person. And it's not like I'll have a kid tomorrow. Plus, it'll take them a while to plan the wedding. You'll have a hot date by then, I'm sure."

"Yep," Chelsea agreed. "And I'd like you both to be in my wedding party if you want to be."

"Of course!" Sofia told her with a smile. "What do you mean 'if you want to be?!' I'm happy for you. Really. I'm just pathetically single. I used to not care about that, but for some reason, now I do."

"You're not pathetic," Lexie said. "You've got a lot going for you."

"I know I do."

"Declan, what do you think of Mommy and Daddy getting married?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"That's okay with you?" Maxwell asked him.

"Yep."

"Good."

* * *

"That was nice this morning," Arizona said as she and her wife reviewed the x-rays of a patient that they shared. "Too short, but nice."

"It's always too short now that the kids aren't kids anymore," Callie agreed. "They have their own lives going on. But it was nice. I still wouldn't do Mother's Day any differently. I love that we make it a whole family event."

"Me too," she smiled.

"I'm so happy for Max and Chelsea," Callie added. "Not that it really changes anything because they've been a family for a while now, but…"

"I know," she said.

Arizona's tone was a little less than happy, though. Something else was on her mind. Callie just wasn't sure what it was.

"What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she responded. "I just want Faith and Sebastian to make the right choice for them, not the least expensive one. I know that finances are obviously a part of that, but what if they feel like they're supposed to go with one thing, but they can't afford it?"

"They'll figure it out."

"When we did our I.U.I.s, we had the money to do whatever we wanted. Money was a factor, but we could make anything work."

"Yes."

"And it's not like Faith and Sebastian don't have the financial means to raise a child. They do. They just may not have the means to get one here. That seems unfair. Yet again. I should be used to it, but I hate when things are unfair for her because of her heart. We raised her to believe that she could do anything, and that's what I want for her."

"And she will," Callie assured her. "She'll be a mom one day."

"I know, but if pregnancy was a good choice, this wouldn't even be an issue."

Lexie walked into the room with her own set of scans to look over.

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were in here."

"Go ahead," Callie replied. "We're done. We need to book an O.R. We're just talking now."

"Okay," she said. "Chelsea keeps emailing me pictures of dresses. Already. Her mom thinks that they should have a small wedding, but I'm getting the impression that they want a pretty big one. Which I'm all for."

"Why does her mom care about the size of the wedding?" Callie asked. "Are they paying for it?"

"I don't think so. She just thinks that they should keep it simple since it's not really changing anything. They'll still be the same family."

"That doesn't mean that they don't deserve the day that they want," Arizona said. "Even if her parents were helping pay for it, they shouldn't have to scale it back because they're already a family. That's not a real reason. That's just old-fashioned thinking. We had Sofia when we got married and we had a pretty big wedding."

"Right," she said.

Callie and Arizona took their x-rays down off of the board and left the room.

"Could we help Faith and Seb be able to afford whatever they decide is best for them?" Arizona asked as they walked to their patient's room. "If they need help? We wouldn't pay the whole thing, but maybe even just knowing that we could pay a portion of it would help them. We have the money. I can't think of a better way to spend it."

"You think Faith will agree to that?"

"I think she'll insist on paying us back, but that's just because we taught her well. And we don't need it back."

"So the money won't come between us."

"No. I'd rather them spend whatever money they have on our future grandchild anyway. Wouldn't you?"


	17. A Step In The Right Direction

**I was planning to write much earlier in the day than this (it is 10:30 p.m. on May 9th as I type this), but that didn't work out for a few reasons. However, I kind of like that I'm writing this now. I'm obviously still processing the happenings of the latest episode. I'm trying to believe that Calzona will be endgame, and I'm wanting to trust in the process. Still, I think we all need some good stuff right now. So I give you this. The chapter in which Calzona's biggest concern is how and when they'll become grandparents. It's not all happy, but it comes around. Hopefully the current state of Calzona does the same.**

* * *

Callie and Arizona did offer to help Faith and Sebastian out financially. As predicted, Faith insisted that they shouldn't pay the entire amount necessary – even if they could – and that she and Sebastian would pay them back. Her mothers just let her believe that they would accept the repayment, even though they weren't planning to. It was easier that way.

Once the weight of the financial burden of their choice was lifted, the couple started making the necessary appointments that they hoped would provide them with information and clarity. They were excited for these, but they may have gotten themselves a little too excited.

Two weeks ago, they had met with a surrogacy center to get further details about what that process would entail. After talking it over for a few days afterwards, they decided that surrogacy was not the route that they wanted to take. While they did think it would be nice to be a part of their child's story from the very start, they just weren't getting the feeling that they had hoped for. It was somewhat of a surprise that they had ruled it out so quickly, but they just knew that it would not be best. They opted not to bring a new child into the world when adoption would welcome someone who could fit just as well into their family.

However, they had just left an adoption agency and they were now feeling less than thrilled about how that meeting had gone as well.

"Are we really not cut out to be parents?" Faith asked. "Because we have other people's hearts beating inside of our chests? Really?"

"She didn't say that," Sebastian replied. "She said that adopting requires medical information and that that particular agency tends to be hesitant when it comes to cases like ours."

"Oh, she was definitely hesitant," Faith agreed. "There was no missing that. But 'cases like ours?' The way she said that couldn't have been worse. I'm not a statistic, Seb. Neither are you. I've had Michael's heart ever since I can remember. I've done well with it. You've had two transplants, but still. It's been almost eleven years now, and you're healthy. We're not sickly people. We take medication, but we have healthier lifestyles than most Americans. I have a demanding job, and I keep up just as well as any other surgeon. And that lady is 'hesitant' before she even sees our full medical histories? I'm a doctor. If I thought that I wouldn't be around to raise a child, I wouldn't be trying to become a mom. I know that there is always a chance of rejection, but it hasn't happened in twenty –"

"I know," he nodded as he drove back to the hospital. "But let's not give up. Another agency might be a better fit for us. Knowing about our medical histories is obviously going to be important to them, but not all agencies will rule us out as quickly as this woman did. They'll be very thorough with us, but people with other risk factors adopt all of the time. People who are in remission from cancer get approved to adopt, and there is a chance that their cancer could come back. I don't see how that's much different from the chance that, technically, we could reject the hearts that we haven't rejected in years."

"Were we stupid to think that we could adopt?" she asked.

"No," he said. "If we had just had transplants, I'd agree with that agency. I'd say that we weren't healthy enough. But we've both done well. You know Cristina. If she thought that we were going to leave our kid behind, she wouldn't mince words. She would tell us that parenthood – let alone pregnancy – wasn't smart for us. It wouldn't exactly be professional, but she knows us well enough that she would tell us not to become parents. She didn't. She told us that pregnancy may not be the best call, but she didn't ask us what we were thinking when we told her that we wanted a baby."

"We're both monitored by an excellent doctor. It's not like we're careless. We take care of ourselves. And that lady thought we were 'too much of a risk' the second we said 'transplants.' She didn't listen to the fact that we've done as great as we have for as long as we have. That has to count for something."

"That was one agency," he reminded her. "We'll see what others say."

"And if they all reject us?"

"Then we revisit the idea of surrogacy."

"Okay."

"But they won't all reject us. We'll be parents. I promise."

* * *

Callie was in the operating room when both Arizona and Sofia began paging her. Worried that something terrible had happened, she found them both as soon as she was finished with her patient. Everything appeared to be fine. They were just eating lunch in the cafeteria.

"Well, what happened?" she asked.

"Faith's freaking out," Sofia said.

Faith had texted them from the car, letting them know that they definitely wouldn't be proceeding with the first adoption agency and expressing her fears that maybe adoption wasn't for them either.

"The meeting didn't go well?"

"The agency wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea of them adopting after their transplants," Arizona explained. "They knew that the subject would obviously come up, but they weren't expecting to be turned down because of it. At least not immediately."

"It doesn't mean that they can't adopt through any agency, does it?"

"No," Sofia replied. "Medical information is required, but from what they've told me, it isn't everything. And they've been doing well for so long now. Still, she's discouraged."

"So, we're here to cheer her up," Arizona smiled. "They're meeting with another agency tomorrow and she can't be thinking too much about how this meeting went if the second one's going to go well."

"Right," she agreed.

"They'll be here any minute," Sofia said, checking her watch for what had to have been the twentieth time.

Instead of Faith, Cristina was the next one to arrive to the cafeteria where they were gathered. She didn't look very happy to have been paged, so they were hoping that her role in their plan wouldn't backfire.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes," Arizona nodded. "Faith and Sebastian got turned down by an adoption agency today, and she's not going to be too happy when she gets here. Teddy's in the O.R., but she's already got all the hands she'll need in there. Is there anything Faith can scrub in on with you?"

"She really needs to hold a heart," Sofia added. "And she's good."

"Then let her hold some kid's heart," she suggested. "I've got a harvest. I'm leaving in –"

"Take her," Callie begged, not exactly sure why she was as into the plan as her wife and daughter were.

She wanted Faith to be happy, but ultimately, she didn't feel like a surgery was going to accomplish that. Even so, she was hoping that Cristina would take Faith along.

"Is she even here?"

"Not yet," Sofia admitted. "But she will be any minute."

As if they had rehearsed the moment, Faith and Sebastian both walked into the cafeteria and over to her family at their table.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. "He promised me that there will be a baby, so I just want to work."

"On a harvest with Cristina," Sofia smiled.

"You got me onto a harvest because of –? But I don't -"

"They did. You don't want special treatment, but they did," Cristina said. "It's in Nevada. We leave now."

"I have the best family," she smiled as she gave her husband a kiss. "Don't wait up."

"Bye," he laughed. "I love you."

"Love you, too!" she called back. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" Arizona replied as Faith and Cristina were leaving.

* * *

Cristina knew that Faith was talented. Her passion alone was enough to make that so, even if she hadn't had the surgical skill that she did. Dr. Yang wasn't exactly fond of many of the doctors in Faith's year, but she had to admit that there was something about Faith that she liked. One day Faith was going to be an excellent surgeon. Cristina would take most of the credit, but it would happen.

Right now, as they were on their way back home with the heart, she was just as pathetic as the rest of her peers, though. Usually she would be studying and trying to better herself. She would be using the time with Cristina to learn something, even if Cristina didn't love her role as a teacher. Things weren't like that this time. Instead, Faith was quiet.

"You want to talk about it, don't you?" she asked her. "Just ask me already."

"Are we wasting our time here?" she finally questioned. "In order to adopt, we have to get our doctor to say that we're healthy enough to be parents. That would be you. We know that you need to tell the truth, but what is the truth? Are we too far in to see it?"

"No."

"Do you think we'll die and leave our kid without parents?"

"Not on my watch," she said. "You know the medicine. Rejection will always be a possibility. There's nothing we can do about that. According to your bodies, your hearts don't belong. But neither one of you are at a high risk for rejection now. We've got control so far. I would tell the adoption agency exactly that."

"Okay."

"I'm going to get sentimental here, and you're not going to tell anyone."

She smiled.

"What?"

"The Faith Torres I know would do whatever it took to be a mom. She wouldn't give up because one person didn't like it. You've been feisty since the day that you were born. What's different now?"

"My motherhood is in the hands of other people," she said. "I know that you never wanted kids, so you can't relate, but it's a major blow. I think of us as normal, but that woman saw us as broken."

"Adopt a whole bunch of babies, raise them to be Cardio Gods, and rub it in her face."

"Are you really pulling for me here?"

"I love a good success story."

* * *

Faith was obviously still working when dinner time rolled around. Therefore, Sebastian ended up over at Callie and Arizona's house for dinner.

"I want to give that adoption agency lady a piece of my mind," Arizona said as she sat down on the couch with him and Callie afterwards.

"It'll happen for us," Sebastian replied. "There is more than one agency in the state of Washington. Someone'll give us a chance. If not, then we'll go with surrogacy. We're not crazy about it, but the end goal is a baby. If that's how it works out, we'll do as many rounds of I.V.F. as we can possibly afford. Even with your money, we're scared to waste it, but we'll do whatever we have to do."

"Good," Callie smiled.

"I just think that you've both been through more than enough," Arizona told him. "Something in life should be simple for you, shouldn't it?"

"But we'll never take parenthood for granted," he said. "Just like we don't take anything else for granted."

"True," she replied. "Still. I can't help but wish that things were different. That Faith would have never had H.L.H.S. in the first place. Some people have so many healthy children, and I get pregnant with a baby who has H.L.H.S. the one time that I try."

"You still feel like that?" Callie asked. "Arizona, I've been telling you that there's no way we could have known –"

"Since I was pregnant. I know. And no. H.L.H.S. has actually motivated me so much. Not that I'll ever love it. I'll always hate it, but I've been able to save so many lives with the F.E.T. and Robbins procedures. Children who may not have seen first birthdays are sending me pictures from college graduations and weddings."

"Exactly."

"But at times like this, I can't help but wonder why she couldn't have just been healthy. There are people out there who abuse and neglect their kids and these two would be such good parents."

"And we will be," Sebastian said.

"I don't think that Faith would be Faith without the H.L.H.S. I'm not saying that it defined her, but she grew up defying the odds and she's never stopped," Callie explained.

"I'm sure that there was a time that she questioned if she'd be able to handle the demands of a career as a surgeon," Sebastian assumed. "And she makes that look easy. It's going to be a long, hard road to become parents, but today was still just the beginning of it."

"I've never spent a lot of time thinking about perfect men, but I'm pretty sure that's what you are. Too bad you don't have an older brother. Sofia could use one of you, too," Arizona smiled.

"I'm not perfect," he denied.

"Listen, when we had two little girls, we were terrified of the guys that they'd bring home one day," she told him. "So far, so good. Faith only ever brought you home, and Sofia hasn't brought home too many train wrecks."

"And even those didn't usually make it past Mark," Callie added.

"Nobody ever really made it past Mark," Arizona pointed out. "Even the good ones. They still weren't good enough for his little girl."

"I'm terrified of having a girl," Sebastian said. "Not that it matters. Obviously, I'd love a daughter, but I don't think I could handle watching her get her heart broken. Talking Faith down after the appointment today was hard enough."

"It's like you speak Faith, though," Callie told him. "You're so good at it."

"We've been together since high school," he smiled. "I'd hope so."

* * *

Her husband was fast asleep by the time that Faith arrived home that night, and she didn't bother to wake him. The appointment with the other adoption agency was the next morning, and it was roughly an hour away this time. They could discuss all of their fears in the car on the way there. For now, she was going to focus on the transplant that she and Cristina had done. She saved lives for a living. She figured that that had to earn her some good karma if that existed.

It did. Even from the minute that they walked in to the second adoption agency, she felt better. There were still nerves and unknowns – and some of those wouldn't go away until this whole process was complete – but she felt like something was right about this lovely little place.

"Are you Faith and Sebastian?" a smiling blonde woman asked when she came out to the waiting area.

She could easily pick them out even though she didn't know anything about them yet. The rest of the couples that were there had already begun their adoption journeys. There were looks in Faith and Sebastian's eyes that told her differently about them.

"We are," Faith smiled as they stood up.

"I'm Brie," she introduced herself. "Nice to meet you. My office is right this way."

They went back to her office – which was filled with pictures of forever families that she had helped to bring together – and sat down on the couch. Brie wanted to begin the conversation simply by asking them to tell her about themselves, but Faith couldn't help but interrupt her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I have a question."

"Ask away," she smiled. "You're going to have many, many questions for me throughout this process. Don't hold back. It's what I'm here for."

"We've both had heart transplants," she explained. "Mine was as a toddler, and Sebastian's second one was almost eleven years ago. How much of a problem does that create? We've already had one agency dismiss us before even looking at our histories. I just don't want to go through all of this to have the same thing happen again."

"I can't say for sure that you'll be approved to adopt," she answered. "That process takes time. Possibly more time than usual given the health issues that you have had. It's our job to make sure that any family that we place a child with is able to meet all of their needs. There are health requirements. However, we take a look at each case. It's rare for us to make a blanket statement about which couples can and cannot adopt solely based on a medical condition. As long as a doctor feels like you'd be healthy enough to raise a child, and like you'll be around long enough to do so, then we don't have a reason to disagree with that. We look at the whole picture, not just one thing. Ultimately the final decision regarding any adoption is made by a judge, but we do the best we can to work with families to make sure that they have as much as possible working in their favour before we get to that point. You may be turned down, but it's not a sure thing. Let's take it one step at a time, okay?

Faith looked over to her husband with an almost childlike expression of glee on her face. She was trying hard not to get her hopes up just yet because the adoption process wouldn't be an easy one, but they had already gotten further with Brie than they had with the possibility of pregnancy, the option of surrogacy, or the meeting with that first case worker.

"Happy now?" he asked.

"Very."

"Good," Brie said. "Now, tell me about yourselves. Anything at all. No pressure. The more comfortable we get with each other, the better."

"This feels like a job interview," Faith laughed.

"It kind of is," Sebastian pointed out.

"Where do we start?" Faith asked. "At birth?"

"Wherever you want," Brie assured her. "I'm not sitting here judging every little thing you say. Trust me. I've heard it all. This process can be overwhelming. If you still thank that adoption is for you after you leave here today, you'll be leaving with a binder full of information and a bunch of questions to answer. I'm trying to ease you into it. Every family is different. The more I know you two, the easier I can help match you with a child."

"Alright," Faith smiled. "I'm a surgical resident. I have big dreams of saving many, many lives, but that's not all I want. I grew up with two moms who are also surgeons and we still had such a close family. I don't go a day without talking to my moms. That's mostly because I work with them, but I think we'd still be just as close if I didn't. Other than Sebastian, my sister is my best friend. I want the family that I grew up in. That might be a tall order, but it's always been what I've wanted."

"She wants it all, basically," Sebastian said.

"But I know that it takes work," she clarified. "I'm not naïve. I'm just ready."

"We both are," Sebastian agreed. "I have a great family. My childhood wasn't quite the same as Faith's since I was an only child and my mom mostly stayed home with me, but I was my parents' everything. Even if my dad was busy with work, I always knew that I was the most important thing. To me, that's what parents should be like. It's not necessarily about not having more in your life, but it is about making your children the single most important part of your life."

"Okay," Brie said. "So, why do you feel like adopting is something that you want to do?"


	18. Paperwork and Parties

**I know I told some people that they could expect this chapter to be up much sooner than it is. I'm sorry. However, I feel that the time I took to make the necessary changes to this chapter made it a better one. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Is there anything that they aren't asking for?" Sebastian asked as he and his wife ate lunch together in his office.

Getting the adoption process started hadn't made for the easiest month. They had been expecting it to take a lot of work, but it had surpassed even those expectations. Just to get everything going, they had to submit various documents along with pages and pages of completed paperwork. They wanted to finish with this part of the process as soon as possible so that they could move on to the next. However, there was no rushing through most of it.

"No, I think they've got it all covered," Faith answered. "At least we've been able to get some stuff out of the way. We've got our birth certificates, proof of marriage, we've completed the residence history, we've made appointments for overall physicals and with Cristina so that she can provide the agency with current documentation regarding our cardiac health…we're getting there. Slowly."

"But we still have all of this," Sebastian said, looking at the paperwork in front of him. "And then there's the baby-proofing everything, the interviews, the home visit…"

"One step at a time," she reminded him.

"I know," he said. "I double checked and my infant C.P.R. certification is valid for another year."

"Okay," she replied. "Mine just expired, but I had to get it renewed anyway. So that's done. And I found the record of all of Nellie's shots last night, too."

"We should work on some of this while you have a minute," he told her.

"Want to do the matching sheet?" she wondered. "It seems like one of the least daunting ones. It's just about what we would and wouldn't be comfortable with."

"Sure," he agreed.

"Gender?" she asked. "Technically, we could choose. We don't want to, right? If I got pregnant, we couldn't choose, so…"

"Exactly," he said. "I know I've said that having a daughter terrifies me, but that's just because I'd be her dad. It's not because I want a son more or anything."

"I know," she smiled. "I've said the same thing about having a boy ever since I was a teenager, but I'm not comfortable with saying that we only want one or the other. We want the right child for us."

"Yes," he nodded.

"We'd be more than willing to adopt a child of any race," she said, automatically able to answer the next question since they had already talked about it.

"Definitely," he replied. "No matter who we end up adopting, we'll have to explain their history to them as well as we can. They'll be our child, but they'll have a story that's unique to them. If that involves a different racial background, then that's a part of it and we'll nurture that. But we don't need a child who looks like us. Our child's going to know about their adoption from day one, and we won't shy away from any of those topics. I don't think that's healthy."

"Age is the next one," she told him. "Our agency doesn't place toddlers, but sometimes they will help to place older babies whose parents just can't parent them anymore. We'd be open to that, right?"

"Right."

"What about special needs?" Faith asked.

"I think it depends. One of the reasons we're not trying to get pregnant or using a surrogate is to avoid having a sick baby, but not all special needs are the same."

"I know," she said. "There's a whole list of different possibilities here. Let's go through it. We can't just rule out the really scary ones, but I do want to make sure that we'd be capable parents to a special needs child. I'd say that we'd probably be able to handle most of these needs, but we both need to know what we could be saying yes to. That's part of it. If our parents hadn't taken the chance and decided to do everything that they could for us, we wouldn't be here. We shouldn't just freak out and start saying no, but we have to be aware of what could happen."

"Yeah," he nodded.

Faith was hoping that she and Sebastian would get to enjoy their entire lunches together while working on a decent amount of the paperwork, but she received a page from Dr. Bailey letting her know that she was already needed elsewhere.

"Sorry," she apologized to Sebastian. "We'll finish this later. Don't forget about my aunt Teddy's retirement party. It's in the –"

"I know," he said as they kissed.

"I might not be able to go now, so try to make it for both of us. I know you're busy too, but just try to stop by."

"I will."

* * *

"I'll find out whose idea this was," Teddy warned Callie and Arizona during the little "party" that they had planned for her.

She hadn't really wanted any sort of retirement party because it just felt like a goodbye to her. While she had no immediate plans to return, she knew that she wasn't seeing the last of Seattle Grace Mercy West. She would be back in some capacity. Therefore, the party didn't seem necessary.

"Why do you think it was us?" Callie asked. "What if it was Austin who planned this whole thing? Or someone else entirely."

"This party has you two written all over it," she replied.

"Okay, but at least we made sure that you had fair warning," Arizona said. "It wasn't a surprise."

"That's true," she said, giving her a hug. "And thank you. Even though I said no parties."

"You're welcome," she smiled. "We'd better see you around here again."

"You will," she promised.

"Is my sister going to get weekly Cardio skills labs?" Sofia asked as she joined the conversation.

Teddy laughed.

"No," she said. "But I'm sure I'll still spend many hours teaching her. You all know where I live, you know."

"It's not the same, though," Arizona replied. "We won't see you nearly as much as we do now."

"You'll see me a lot," she said. "Trust me. And if you're worried about Faith and Sebastian –"

"We aren't," Callie clarified. "I mean, we are because we're her moms and we'll never not worry about her, but we're not overly worried. She's been healthy for years and Cristina's an excellent doctor."

"Exactly what I was going to say," Teddy agreed.

"Cristina's so excited to be Head of Cardio now," Sofia said.

"I know," she smiled.

"When you retire, you'll recommend me to Bailey, right?" Sofia jokingly asked her mom.

"For Head of Peds.?" she asked.

"Right."

"I'll be recommending Alex," she answered. "I know you'll be an Attending by then, but he's still got you beat in terms of experience."

"I know," she laughed. "But when _he_ retires, that's my Peds. ward."

"You're not getting ahead of yourself at all," Callie teased.

"It's called having goals," she replied.

"She can do it," Teddy agreed.

"See?!"

"After getting some more experience," she added.

"You're not automatically getting any promotions," Arizona said. "There are plenty of talented Peds. surgeons around here."

* * *

Faith would be headed into the operating room eventually, but she had some time while they waited for the patient's lab results to come back. Therefore, she stopped by Teddy's party to say hi and to help herself to a piece of cake.

"You made it," she smiled when she saw that Sebastian was doing the same.

"I did," he said. "And before I came here, I asked Shepherd for a reference letter. I figure the agency will probably like that given that he's an adoptive parent."

"Probably. Plus, he's known me forever and he's gotten to know you, too. He'll have some good things to say."

"Exactly."

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"Bailey just told me that she thinks my interns became some of the year's best!" she smiled. "She doesn't just hand out compliments like that. That's huge."

He gave her a kiss.

"You've worked so hard this year," he said. "You deserve it."

"New interns are coming, though," she pointed out. "Tomorrow."

"I know."

"New interns are scary. I try to remember how hard it was to be an intern, but sometimes they're still just annoying. Especially the ones who are book smart, but freeze in the O.R. They think they're geniuses, but they don't know how to apply themselves."

"But you're a great teacher," he told her. "So you can teach them anything."

Derek walked into the room and straight over to them. He handed Faith the letter of reference that he had just written to the adoption agency.

"You're done already?" Sebastian asked.

"I had a few minutes," he explained.

"Thank you," Faith smiled. "This whole process is so overwhelming. Having someone as busy as you help us out right away is nice. We appreciate it."

"Once you have your baby, they'll be so worth all of it. It sounds weird, but sometimes I honestly forget Zola's adopted," he told them. "And even when she was younger, it felt like we'd always had her."

"It doesn't sound weird," Faith replied. "I can't wait for that feeling. Right now, it feels like we'll have a baby in about sixteen years or so."

He laughed.

"It shouldn't be that long."

"How did you survive the waiting to be matched?" Sebastian asked. "I know that's the part that's going to drive us the most insane. Once everything's done and we're just waiting to be contacted."

"We met Zola before we decided to adopt her," he said. "We never had this hypothetical baby in mind. It was always her."

"Wouldn't that be great if we already knew who our child was?" Sebastian asked.

"That would be amazing," his wife agreed.

"It'll be perfect whenever it happens," Derek said.

Teddy came over with the pieces of cake that Faith and Sebastian had yet to help themselves to. They had both told her that they weren't sure if they would be able to be there, so she was excited to see that they had been able to make some time for her.

"You come to my party and talk to Derek before you talk to me?" she joked.

"He was just giving us a reference letter for the agency," Faith explained. "And I thought you didn't even want the party?"

"Well, I didn't."

"I have a solution. Just don't ever retire. I know I have Cristina, but I still want you."

"How many times do I have to promise that I'll be around?" she asked, handing over the cake slices. "Trust me. Just eat your cake and tell me what these reference letters need to say. I'll write one, too."

* * *

Faith had just gotten home from work after two back to back surgeries. Luckily, they hadn't been overly complicated or anything, but it had still been a long day. Perhaps that was also because she and Sebastian were still working on the seemingly endless adoption paperwork that they had to complete. It felt like all of their free time was now spent on these forms.

"At least we're finished the matching sheet now," he said. "What's next?"

"Take your pick," she replied.

Nellie, who was lying at Sebastian's feet, got up and started barking as she heard the front door open. They had been expecting Sofia, so they didn't even bother getting up. Her sister would just let herself in.

"Oh, shhh!" Sofia told the puppy when she walked into the living room. "It's me, Nellie!"

"She's just practicing being protective for when we have a baby here," Sebastian smiled. "Right, Nellie?"

Now that she saw who it was, Nellie's guard was down. She went and sat by Sofia, hoping for a few pets.

"Oh, hi!" Sofia replied, giving her some attention. "Are you better now? I just came to drop off these adoption things so Mommy and Daddy can adopt a baby. That's all."

One of the various things that the agency required was a small form that was to be filled out by each of their immediate family members. It was nothing too big, but it just served as a way to get to see what the family that the baby would become a part of looked like right now.

"Thanks," her sister said as she took them.

"Sorry it took a few days. I've been working a lot."

"I know. It's fine. We're not done the rest of this stuff anyway."

"Mom's and Madre's are in there, too," she added. "They asked me to drop them off."

"Great."

"Why do they need to know about us? If we were crappy, you wouldn't get a kid? That seems wrong. I have a sister I don't even talk to, so if I wanted to adopt…"

"I don't think this is a deal breaker," Sebastian said. "I think they just want to know. They're all about getting the whole picture of a family."

"Well, I'm already an excellent aunt," Sofia smiled. "And I save children's lives for a living. Your kid can't possibly have a better aunt than me."

Faith smiled.

"What are you doing now?" she asked.

"Nothing," she answered. "I went back to work hoping that there would be something good for me to scrub in on, but there wasn't. I'm thinking about going to the new interns' mixer. I want a sneak peek of what we're getting tomorrow."

"Oh, the night before is so fun," she laughed. "And the first day is hell. Go enjoy the naïve excitement."

"Want to come?" she wondered.

"I don't think so," she said.

"Oh, come on," she urged. "Take your mind off of all of this adoption stuff. One night won't make a difference, will it?"

"No."

"Seb can come, too," she told her. "So what if he's not a surgeon? No one cares. He's Sebastian."

"You want to?" Faith asked him.

"Sure," he agreed. "She's right. The break would be nice."

* * *

"You wouldn't even consider a closed adoption?" Faith was asking her husband at the mixer. "I don't know if we get a whole bunch of choice. If a birth family chooses us, but doesn't want contact, we'll just have to accept that."

"But open adoption has more benefits for the child."

"I agree," she said. "But we can't force a birth parent to be a part of the child's life. And plus, open adoptions take a _lot _of effort on both sides."

"So you're saying that you don't want -?"

"I'm saying that I don't have enough information yet," she said. "I think open adoption sounds great, but it depends on the birth family that places with us. Let's not even go there yet."

"Okay."

"You two are so lame," Sofia said. "You're like parents already. You're out for the night and still talking about the kids."

"So? You're single and in a room full of cute doctors," Sebastian pointed out. "Yet you're talking to us."

"Please," Sofia smiled. "Hitting on interns would be wrong."

"Lexie and Meredith ended up _married_ to the people who they met as interns," Faith said. "You talking to a cute intern boy to help you get over Cody wouldn't be the end of the world. It won't even go anywhere. You're basically commitment-phobic."

"Am not."

"Are to."

"Is this high school?" Sebastian asked.

"You want me to go find a cute intern boy to impress?" she questioned, taking a sip of her drink. "I'll go find a cute intern boy to impress. It'll mostly impress him that my parents are my parents, but before he knows it, he'll see that I'm a genius in my own right."

"Whatever you say," Faith smiled.

"It's true!"


	19. Forty-Eight Hours

"_Which one do you want?" Arizona asked her four-year-old as she held out both her scrub cap and her wife's for Faith to choose from._

"_Madre's," Faith decided after some thought._

_Arizona's was pink and especially pretty in her opinion. However, whenever she got to come to the hospital and wear one of them, she always chose that one. Just this once she decided that Callie's looked cool as well._

_Her mom helped her put it on. Faith had been doing this every now and then from a very young age. Sometimes they had even used their scrub caps as a fun distraction from all of the scary things when she had been admitted. Still, seeing the caps on her little girl's small head never got old. _

"_Can you even see?" she asked as it drooped into her mini-me's eyes. _

"_A little," she replied, going over to the full length mirror to check herself out. "Do I look almost like a real doctor?"_

"_No," her big sister said as she put on her mom's scrub cap._

_She wasn't under the impression that it made her look like a doctor. She knew that she was much too young for that. Even so, there was something fun about wearing these. Faith was right about that. Sofia may have been starting to say that she was too old for some things, but hanging out at the hospital in whatever "doctor gear" that she could get her hands on wasn't one of them._

"_A little bit?"_

"_Mom, aren't these only for your heads in the O.R.?" Sofia asked._

"_We each have more than one," Arizona assured her. "Right now, those aren't the ones we like best. We haven't worn them in a while."_

"_Oh."_

"_Is the doctor almost ready?" Faith wondered._

_Dr. Robbins hadn't just brought her children in to work for no good reason. Faith needed to have yet another appointment with Dr. Brady. Lately, the family had had a very hectic life. Between their busy work schedules and the girls' activities, they had had a difficult time scheduling these appointments without anyone missing out on something. When Faith's doctor heard that they would have to miss Faith's dance recital in order to make her appointment this month, he had told them just to bring her in on a day that he would be at the hospital. He would quickly take a look at her and they would be on their way._

"_I don't know," Arizona answered. "He's working. He's busy and he's being nice enough to squeeze you in."_

"_Oh," she said. "So, do I look at least a little like a real doctor?"_

_Arizona placed her stethoscope around the tiny blonde's neck. That would help, she assumed. Faith's face lit up._

"_Mommy, remember when I was a doctor for Halloween? I saw those pictures."_

"_I do," she nodded. "You were cute."_

_Callie walked in. She knew that her family was there, and she had been looking forward to seeing them for her entire shift. It had been a long one, but the stress of it started to disappear as soon as she saw her children in the scrub caps. There was no way that she could resist smiling at that sight._

"_Hi," she said. "Did you see Dr. Brady yet, Faith?"_

"_Not yet," she answered, as she tried to listen to her own heart with the stethoscope. "But my heart sounds good."_

"_I think that's what he'll say, too," Arizona agreed. "You've been doing great."_

"_Yeah. Pretending to be a doctor is fun," she giggled._

_Her doctor walked in just in time to hear this. _

"_It is, huh?" he asked._

"_Yep," she nodded. _

"_I hear you're a couple of busy kids lately." _

"_I do ballet now," she told him. "And art class starts soon for me and Sofia."_

"_And swimming," Sofia added. "We both do that, too. I just didn't want to do ballet because I'm too big now. I get to look for something else instead."_

"_You girls are really lucky," Dr. Brady told them._

"_Sometimes it feels like we have no downtime," Callie laughed. "But when Faith was sick, we couldn't think about many activities. Sofia had her dad and Lexie, but still. If she was with us, we just couldn't make any commitments like that. Not when we didn't know what might be happening with Faith. Now that she's doing well, they both get to go crazy. They're happy, so…"_

"_And we've made friends whose moms drive us if you can't," Sofia said._

"_Right."_

"_Sounds fun," Dr. Brady smiled. _

"_And it's fun to come here, too. When I'm not sick," Faith said. "But can you do my check-up super fast? I just like to play with doctor stuff."_

_He laughed._

"_Come with me, Kiddo."_

* * *

The sun had just come up, yet Arizona was already working on her second cup of coffee. That day – the day that they would be welcoming a whole new set of interns to Seattle Grace Mercy West – was going to be a long one. She loved her job, but she already wasn't looking forward to her shift. She and her wife had just arrived. Technically, it had begun.

"Remind me again why we're working forty-eight hour shifts?" she asked. "We're too old for forty-eight hour shifts, Calliope."

"We are not too old for surgery," she disagreed. "If we were too old for surgery, we'd be retired. I know we have friends who are retired now, but I'm still nowhere near ready for that. We can do this. It'll be great."

"There will be new interns."

"Okay, maybe it won't be great, but we can do this. Bailey's right."

Ever since Dr. Bailey's first year as Chief she had recommended that her entire staff of surgeons take part in the traditional forty-eight hour shift that the interns were expected to work. No one was forced to because some of them had already worked long shifts before the forty-eight hour one began. She didn't want her doctors completely burning themselves out at the beginning of a new surgical year, but she encouraged that they work the shift if they could. They were used to long shifts, but the forty-eight hour one was still considered longer than usual. However, it challenged everyone to remember where they had started and to strive to improve themselves. She felt like it also created better teachers if the bosses were willing to take on the following two days along with the interns.

"I know we work long hours all the time. I can handle twenty-four hour shifts, and even thirty-six hour shifts are doable, but –"

Callie kissed her.

"That extra twelve hours won't kill us. The interns might, but the shift will end. And then we'll sleep while the surgeons who aren't working today work."

"Keep bringing me coffee," she said. "Whenever you get the chance and I'm not in the O.R. I'll do the same for you."

"Will do," she smiled.

Faith was putting her long hair into a ponytail as she spotted them. All of the interns were still gathered in their locker room, so everyone else had a few minutes to themselves before the toughest part of the day began.

"I don't know how people have successful surgical careers when their spouses don't work in the hospital, too," she told them. "I know Seb's not a surgeon, but he'll still be here. I won't have to go without seeing him for a whole two days."

Arizona smiled.

"You can still tell that you're newlyweds," she said.

"Why?" she asked. "Because I want to see my husband? Aren't spouses supposed to want that?"

"Yes," Callie agreed. "Your mother and I still do. But the way you said it was what your mother was getting at. It's like not seeing him for forty-eight hours would be the worst thing that you can think of."

"It's sweet," her wife added.

"Sebastian's not staying for the whole two days, is he?" Callie wondered.

"Oh, no. He's going home for sure, but still. He'll be here at least some of the time. That way, we hopefully won't have to work on the adoption paperwork via phone or video chat."

"Two days without doing any paperwork would be okay, too," Arizona pointed out.

"We know. We're just anxious. The wait could be a long one. We don't want to waste even more time because of paperwork and homestudy hang-ups. We know that that doesn't necessarily change the way that it all plays out, but we have control over the time that it takes us to do the paperwork. We don't really have control over when a successful match will happen."

"Understandable," Callie replied. "Where's your sister?"

"Probably already in the intern locker room," she answered.

"Why do you say that?" her mom questioned.

"We went to the mixer last night, and she spent most of her time chatting with one of them. Dr. Boone. He's cute, but I don't know. He might be 007 material. She agreed, but she still thinks he'll be around for a while. She's hoping anyway."

"I never would have pegged Sofia for the type that would start flirting with interns," Callie said.

"You used to be married to one," Arizona reminded her.

"I know, but Sofia's so focused when she's here. She's focused all of the time, actually. Then some cute young thing distracts her just like that?"

"She's still Sofia," Faith laughed. "She's still focused. She just had a good night. It's not like she's going to start treating him better than the others. She knows better than that. She just needs to get over Cody. Even though they wanted different things, she ended up liking him more than she thought she would. That's all this is."

"Are you telling them about Oscar?" Sofia asked, coming up to them. "I wowed him with my outstanding medical knowledge. Faith's acting like I slept with him. He didn't even by me a drink. I'm his boss. He's easy on the eyes, but I'm his boss."

"Okay then," Arizona smiled.

"I need a coffee, but there's a huge line up at my favourite coffee cart," she said. "I should have expected that because everyone's going to have to stay awake for a long, long time."

"Yep," Faith replied. "Just be grateful that you can keep yourself caffeinated. Having a limit on the amount of caffeine I can have sucks. Especially today."

"Then why are you here for the whole forty-eight hours? You don't have to be. You could have just worked half of that. Bailey needs surgeons who are rested to take over when we aren't, too."

She shrugged.

"I just figured that this could be my last chance to do this without having a baby at home. Long shifts won't go away even when I have a kid, but I won't be able to voluntarily be away from my family for two days. At least I won't really want to be."

"I don't think we ever really did get used to leaving you at home when you two were small," Callie told her. "It's no fun, but it was good for you to see us being successful. You never hated us for it, did you?"

"Nope," Sofia replied.

* * *

"Why are we doing a scheduled C-Section at thirty-seven weeks?" one of the interns asked as he was handed the chart of an expectant mom.

This particular doctor was the intern of one of Faith's former interns from last year. She had no doubt that he would be well taught, but he wasn't doing so great just yet. He was so anxious to get into an operating room that he wasn't actually reading the patient's chart.

"You need to read the chart," Faith told him. "She's lost two babies without any real explanation, both during long labours in the thirty-eighth week. Dr. Kaye feels like getting her to that point and trying again is not only risky since we don't know what caused the stillbirths before, but it would be too emotionally hard on the family as well. The goal is a healthy mom and a healthy baby. If an elective C-Section accomplishes that, then that's all we need."

"Oh."

They waited for Nerissa to finish up with another case before they entered into the patient's hospital room. Nerissa explained everything that would happen and very patiently talked with Lyra Smith and her husband Ivan about every concern or question that they had.

"Your baby is doing great," she reassured them as she checked the fetal monitors. "In an hour, you'll be meeting him."

"Good," Lyra said. "I'm actually hopeful this time."

"That's what I like to hear."

"Thank you for being so patient," Ivan told her.

"Of course," Nerissa smiled. "It's no problem."

She got paged away, but all that Lyra needed now was to be prepped for surgery. The case that Nerissa was being paged to handle was something that she wanted the intern to see, so she asked Faith if she would mind prepping Lyra for surgery. Normally, she wouldn't be too happy about this, but she didn't mind this time.

"Do you have a name picked out?" she asked.

"No," Lyra replied. "We can't. We're still too nervous to lose him."

"That's understandable," she said.

"We named our girls. Isabella and Vanessa," Ivan explained.

"Those are beautiful names," she commented.

"Do you have kids?" Lyra wondered.

She already considered herself a mom. Even if her children weren't with her, they were hers. It hurt to talk about them, but she never really avoided it because she was still proud to be their mother. Sure, she was sometimes jealous of moms with living children, but she felt equal to them nonetheless

"I don't," she said. "But my husband and I are looking to adopt."

She had no idea why she was revealing this to a patient. She had never said anything before, and she really didn't plan to until she actually became a mother. Yet, she was telling them about it.

"I'm sorry. All three of our kids have been conceived using fertility treatments. Infertility is always hard."

"Oh, fertility isn't an issue. At least we don't think it is. We have other reasons why we're adopting."

"I'm still sorry," she replied. "You won't get that biological connection. That's unfortunate."

* * *

"I operated on the sweetest little boy last night," Arizona told her wife when they had a chance to talk – and drink more coffee - later in the day. "He's still on a limited diet, so I asked him if he wanted some Jell-O and he goes 'Yes, please. I want purple, and green, and red, but its okay if you don't have those all.'"

Callie smiled.

"Most kids don't exactly love me after I operate on them, and he's saying please and assuring me that it's okay if I don't have everything he just asked for. How cute is that?"

"Pretty cute," she agreed.

Faith had been looking for them for a few minutes, and she finally found them. Lyra's comment had gotten under her skin just a little and she wanted to talk to them about it.

"Why don't you look happy?" Callie wondered.

"I have a question," she explained. "I know that I know the answer, but I just need to hear it again."

"What's going on?" Arizona asked.

"We just delivered a beautiful baby boy whose parents have been through a couple of losses in the past. They have fertility issues, and she said that she's 'sorry' because it's sad that I won't have a biological connection to my future baby. I completely respect their choice to do fertility treatments if that's what felt right to them, but what she said has been bothering me. Madre isn't my biological mom. Has there ever been a point where that did matter? Did it help that you were in love with each other, so it was easier to bond with a child who looked like Mom? I know I'm yours and all of that. I know. But is there a small part of her that's right? I know I can build a bond with my child, but I want to know what to expect."

"Honestly, no," Callie answered. "I think at times we both had different relationships with each of you, but that's not because Sofia has my D.N.A. and you have Mom's."

"It's just because you're different people," Arizona added. "We can't have the exact same relationship with two different people."

"Right," Faith nodded.

"But my relationship with Sofia was never stronger than mine with you," Callie assured her. "Biology is one piece of it. Your child's biological family will probably have some sort of bond with them, but so will you. Don't worry. That mom chose a different path than you and Seb are. Adoption wasn't her choice, so it would make sense that she might not understand that it begins at D.N.A., but it doesn't end there."

"I think both of us probably bonded with you faster than we did with your sister," Arizona revealed. "Even Madre. You were both sick, but Sofia's first few weeks were still different from yours. Madre couldn't even meet her at first. With you, we got a little bit more of a chance to do some of that stuff. Of course we bonded with Sofia, but I think it was maybe a bit easier with you."

"That's true," Faith realized. "I guess I'm just letting things worry me."

"Faith, you're going to hear things from lots and lots of people. All that matters is you, Sebastian, and your baby. That's it. If you're all doing okay, than don't even bother listening to other people."

"I don't think this woman was meaning to be hurtful."

"Of course not," she agreed. "She just has a limited understanding. She hasn't been where you are."

"I know. And her baby is super cute. They named him Hunter. I'm so glad he's okay after all that they've been through."

Arizona smiled. This was Faith's true character. She wished the best for everyone even if they didn't see eye to eye. It made her a great doctor and a daughter who they could be proud of.

"I love the happy outcomes."

"Now let's just hope Seb and I meet our future child's potential birth family sooner rather than later."

"You will."

"It takes years and years for some couples. I'm kind of assuming we'll be one of them until proven otherwise."

"Hopefully it's sooner than that," Callie said. "How's it going with the new interns? I'm working with one of them and she's actually not bad."

"The one I'm with was just a little too eager to get into the O.R., but not bad. And since Sofia's working with Oscar, I'm sure that's going well."

Arizona laughed.

"Leave her be. Let her enjoy the cute intern for a while. That's all she's doing."

"I know."

* * *

"Coffee?" Dr. Oscar Boone asked as he handed Sofia a cup.

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip. "How'd you know that this is how I take it?"

"I may have asked around," he smiled.

"You have to be careful," she told him. "I'm your boss."

"Coffee is crossing a line? Since when?"

"It's not," she smiled. "Coffee is good. But let's just stick to coffee, okay? I'm not really looking for anything serious right now anyway. I ended my last relationship because we were in different places in our lives and we wanted different things. That'd just happen again with a Fellow and an intern."

"Yet you're jumping from coffee to relationships," he pointed out. "I'm here to learn, Dr. Torres. It's just that learning from you will probably be more fun."

"Let's just go check on our patient," she told him. "Are you ready for your first time in the O.R. as a doctor?"

"Is anybody really?" he asked, admitting his nervousness.

"No," she said. "Not the first time. But keeping it together would be great. Nobody likes a panicky intern."

"Except for you, right?"

"Sure," she laughed. "C'mon."

* * *

Sofia was texting her sister about the rest of her shift with her new favourite intern as Faith walked into the house. It had been a long two days. She was feeling better about the adoption comment, though. She and Sebastian had discussed it as well, so she was letting it go. She knew that their connection with their eventual baby would be a beautiful one. The thoughts of a stranger couldn't tell her differently.

She smiled when she saw that her husband was reading a parenting book. Given his job, he knew plenty about child development. However, he suspected that parenting would still bring about a few surprises and he wanted to be as prepared as he could be for them.

"Already, huh?" she asked.

"I figure we'll be finished with the paperwork in a few weeks," he explained. "And we'll be starting the interview and home visit portion of the process. I want our homestudy to go well."

"I know," she said. "Once we're done the paperwork, we need to baby-proof this place. It seems silly, but it has to be done before we're even matched. By the time of our final home visit, everything has to be totally safe."

"I know. Hey, are we going to put a nursery together in time for that?"

Some hopeful adoptive parents liked to have a room ready for their future child from the very start. This way, they could show it off during the homestudy, show pictures to expectant parents who may be considering them, and just have something to remind them of why exactly they were going through the tough adoption process. Still, some other people couldn't handle having a room for a baby with no baby around.

"I think so," she said. "I've been debating it, too. But it's a happy thing. I want to wait until a few interview sessions in, just to make sure that it looks like we could really get approved, but I think it would be good. Plus, with the health issue thing, we really need to prove ourselves."

"And a room does that?" he laughed.

"It shows that, in some way, we already love our eventual baby," she yawned. "And speaking of bedrooms, I'm headed to ours."

"Goodnight," he said, even though it was technically not nighttime.

In fact, he would be leaving for work in a few minutes.

"Goodnight. We need to work on the adoption stuff when you get home."

"We will."


	20. A Dinner

**I don't know why exactly, but I got off track in terms of how often I usually post new chapters. My goal is to have more by posted the end of the week (if not sooner). I'm working on the next chapter already, and I think you will really like it.  
**

**Thank you for the reviews. I love them. Keep them coming, please.  
**

* * *

"We weren't supposed to fall asleep," Arizona said as she and Callie woke up in an on-call room the morning after they had been called in to handle the post-op complications of one of their shared patients.

After opening the teenager back up, they had managed to correct the problem. She was now likely to make a full recovery over time. However, the surgery had been a stressful one and the wives had needed a little alone time to unwind. Neither one of them had guessed that they would wake up in each other's arms four hours later.

"I know," Callie replied. "It's okay. The interns could probably handle the post-op monitoring. It's only been three weeks, but those two are already showing some interest in Ortho."

Arizona smiled. There was always interest in Pediatrics. Not everyone who was interested was always cut out to save the tiny humans, but many were willing to try. Her wife's specialty didn't exactly get as much love. Whenever she did find a few people who seemed to want to learn more about what she did, it made Callie feel good.

"You're excited, aren't you?"

"Yes," she replied. "This hospital needs more Ortho surgeons. The ones we have are good, but we could always use more."

"Yep," she nodded.

Callie checked her pager just to make sure that she hadn't received any pages while she and Arizona were asleep. She hadn't. That either meant that things were fine or that the interns were handling it. Judging by the fact that they had only been on the job for three weeks, she assumed that everything was fine.

"So much for our night out last night," she said.

"It ended up alright here," Arizona smiled. "Don't worry about it. And we have tonight off, too. At least we do if nothing comes up."

"Yes, we do. We're basically having dinner to celebrate paperwork being done?"

"And because they want help with the baby-proofing," she said. "They have a list of basic things that need to be done, but they don't want to miss anything specific to their house. They figured that extra eyes could point out potential problems."

Faith and Sebastian had finally completed and submitted all of the necessary paperwork. Now they were already starting to prepare for the next step in the adoption process. There was no telling how long it could be until they welcomed their child home, but they wanted to do what they could to make their part of it as quick as it could be. That was still the goal.

"Okay," she replied. "When I went shopping for Declan's birthday gift yesterday, I found myself looking at newborn things. It was hard not to get something. It would have been bad to buy stuff for our future grandchild right now, right? "

"Yes. As much as we cannot wait to be grandparents, I don't think they need baby items everywhere. It's probably going to be weird enough to be working on a nursery already. We should probably hold off on the baby gifts. That might be a good idea."

"Until the baby shower?" she asked. "Or until the baby's actually home? Just in case –"

"Baby shower?"

"Oh, come on," she said. "We didn't have one when you were pregnant with Faith because she was our second child and because you hate baby showers –"

"And because we weren't sure she'd make it."

"That, too," she agreed. "But just because Faith won't be pregnant doesn't mean that we can't throw her a baby shower. That's just not fair."

"Can we talk about this later? When we have to?" she questioned. "Baby showers aren't my thing."

Callie laughed.

"I know."

Arizona's pager went off.

"I've got to go," she said. "Karev's paging me."

"Okay."

Arizona kissed her.

"Good morning," she smiled.

"Good morning."

* * *

"I just don't get why our meds. have to be locked up already," Sebastian said as he and his wife entered the hospital.

Faith had put a child-proof lock on the cabinet that they kept all of their medications in, and he wasn't exactly thrilled by it. He understood that he would have to be flexible because they were required to have their house inspected as a part of the homestudy, but that hadn't happened yet and the child lock was just an annoyance at that point.

"I put it on just to see how they worked and I can't get it off," she admitted. "But would leaving it be the worst thing ever? Seb, in a few weeks, it has to be there anyway."

"True," he said. "I'm all for safety. I really am, but when I was little, my meds. were just kept above the height that I was able to reach. That was fine."

"Not for us. At least this way we'll be used to the locks before we have a baby."

He laughed.

"Just don't baby-proof anything else yet."

"I don't have any other supplies. I told everyone that we want their help tonight. To make sure that we don't forget anything on our list of things to baby-proof. The agency list is pretty detailed, but it's not tailored to our house."

"Okay," he said. "So who's coming tonight?"

"It started as just my parents and your parents," Faith explained. "And then my sister wanted to come. After that, Genevieve asked your mom to do something tonight, so your mom asked if she could invite Genevieve and Gavin, too. Since Adler died, it's been tough to get Genevieve out of the house. This'll be good for them."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But what's the occasion again? It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the anniversary of my second transplant is coming up?"

"I know you don't like to do anything for that," she assured him. "It's not about that. Though, I am very happy about that."

"Me too."

"I'm also excited that one part of the adoption process is over with," she smiled. "I figured we could celebrate being one step closer to our baby. It's kind of weird, I know. But a lot of things about the adoption process are different. We should celebrate it all."

He smiled. Of course she wanted to celebrate the fact that the very first part of the whole process was over with. He should have known that that was her reason for inviting everyone over. He was excited too, but he didn't think that paperwork was worthy of a dinner party. Yet, seeing how happy she was made him happy. She was sort of right. Why couldn't they celebrate every part of the road to parenthood? If it was going to be long, they would need something to help them remember just how worth it it was going to be.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," she said. "Oh, and I made cinnamon buns in the bread maker. I'm telling you, by the time we're parents, I'm going to know how to make so many things with all of the appliances we got as wedding gifts. Our house is definitely going to be the one that all of the kids in the neighbourhood want to hang out at."

"I don't think it's a competition."

"Well, no," she agreed. "But the waiting's going to drive me nuts. I might as well put my time to good use. The nurses will appreciate the baked goods, too."

"Can you figure out how the ice cream maker works? Homemade frozen yogurt would be great."

"Oh, that does sound delicious."

* * *

"Good," Sofia told Oscar a few hours later.

The interns would have their first skills lab with Mark in about twenty minutes. They hadn't had one yet because they needed to experience a few weeks of their intern year first. Many of them were very nervous because it would be the first time that all of their skills could be directly compared to each other's.

Dr. Boone had talked Sofia into helping him and a few of his friends practice suturing a banana. They had all done it before, but there was still something different about it now. Everything seemed just a little simpler when they were in medical school.

"Thanks."

"Just relax a little," she advised. "You've got this. The next time I have to close a patient, I just might let you do it."

"Really?" one of the other interns, Ashley, asked.

"No," she laughed. "Not yet. No one needs to practice those on the tiny humans. Any scars on the tiny humans are unfortunate, but ones that look –"

"What's with the 'tiny humans' thing?" Oscar wondered.

"I blame my mom," Sofia told him. "I try to resist it, but sometimes it just comes out."

"It must be the best to have four surgeons as parents," Ashley said.

Sofia never really knew what to say to that. It was something that she got a lot of. Even if people didn't know about all of her parents, they usually put two and two together and figured out that she was at least Callie Torres' daughter based on their shared last name. It only got more interesting when they realized that she was also the daughter of three other very successful members of the medical community.

On one hand, Sofia agreed that she was lucky. She probably wouldn't have become a surgeon if she hadn't been able to see what the job was like as she got older. Her parents had shared so much wisdom with her. She hadn't had to stress out quite as much over Fellowship offers. She had never been coddled, but her family had still helped to opened doors that may have been harder for her to open without them. She was grateful for that.

Still, even from the time that she began medical school, Sofia had tried so hard to make a name for herself. She didn't want to only be seen as the child of so many great surgeons. She wanted to become a great surgeon herself.

"Yes and no," she explained. "It is, but I also want people to think of me as me. That's why I did my residency in L.A. I knew that I'd get a good education here, but I needed to be on my own to get my career started."

"Makes sense."

"But your dad is _the_ Dr. Mark Sloan," Oscar replied. "I don't care what you say. That's just cool. I thought it was a rumour at first, but it's not. And it's cool."

"Are you interested in Plastics?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe."

"Okay, but don't ever refer to my father as '_the_ Dr. Mark Sloan' again. It's just awkward for me. I'm sure he'd love it, but it's still weird."

"What can we do to impress him?" Ashley asked.

"You're interested in Plastics, too?" she wondered.

"No," she said. "But I still want him to think –"

"You've heard stories of how he used to torture interns. You can say it. He loves to talk about his accomplishments. Most people think of it as bragging, but he's decided that it's just offering inspiration. Appear interested no matter what."

"Got it."

* * *

"I just held a heart for the last five hours," Faith told her husband as she walked into his office to eat her lunch. "What's better than that?"

He had already eaten his, but she still liked to take advantage of the fact that they both worked there and eat with him when it was possible. He didn't appear to be busy, so she made herself at home.

"I can think of a lot of things better than holding an organ," he said. "But I'm not a surgeon, so…"

"It's awesome," she promised him. "What are you up to?"

"Looking up nursery stuff," he explained as he scrolled down a webpage on his computer.

There was a part of both of them that was wondering if putting a nursery together before there was a specific child to come home to that nursery was just too strange. Yet, they were doing it anyway. They figured that they could get the basics done in time for the homestudy – as a part of showing off what great parents they would be – and then add details to it once they had been matched with an expectant family. That way it could still be somewhat personalized for their baby, but they would have it completed sooner rather than later. Sebastian assumed that his wife would probably make changes to it the entire time that they were waiting, but that would be okay if it kept her from wondering when they would be parents.

"I love you," she said.

She guessed that not very many hopeful adoptive fathers were using free time at work to look up nursery things before they had even been approved. Sure, most of them probably got involved further down the line, but she thought it was nice that he was looking forward to creating a space for their future child, too.

"We really shouldn't buy anything yet," he decided.

"Well, no. We want to be a little more sure that we'll actually be approved first. The last thing I want is an almost finished baby room if we find out that we can't adopt a baby."

"That's not going to happen, but yeah."

"If they hated us just based on the paperwork, they would tell us, right? We won't have to stress about the interviews and the adoption classes only to be turned down? And if the first interview goes well, the others probably will, too. Right?"

"Faith…"

"Yeah?"

"We're going to adopt a baby," he told her. "And if something stops us, we'll still find a way to become parents. But adoption's going to work out."

"I won't fully believe you until we're officially our future baby's mommy and daddy, but I'll mostly believe you for now."

"If you're going to stress over it, then maybe we shouldn't have a baby room –"

"The baby room is going to be hopeful," she said. "Maybe sad sometimes, but mostly hopeful. And there's nothing more relaxing then sitting in a rocking chair for a while. The nursery is going to be my new favourite room."

He smiled.

"So, I was thinking yellow," he revealed. "Since we don't know if we'll adopt a boy or a girl. It seems like the way to go."

"Ew," she replied.

"Ew?"

"It seems like the same boring nursery as every other nursery that is put together by parents who don't know their baby's gender. No yellow and no green."

"Then what do you want?"

"I don't know yet," she admitted. "But not a typical gender neutral room. We're going to work so hard to bring this baby into our family. Another family is going to relinquish rights for our baby to be ours. Our baby deserves the best nursery ever."

He couldn't exactly disagree. All children were special, but their child's story would be different from most. It would be a harder journey than getting pregnant would have been, but it would also mean that they would feel even more blessed when their little one became theirs. He had a feeling that his future son or daughter would be a pretty spoiled child.

"You're going to be such a good mom," he said.

"And you're going to be such a good dad," she replied as she took a bite out of her sandwich. "I just want to get all of the interviews and adoption classes over with already. The wait won't be fun, but I just need to know that we're approved."

"We will be."

* * *

"Oscar thought Dad's skills lab was the best thing ever, but Dad thought he was trying too hard," Sofia laughed as she and her moms helped Faith and Sebastian prepare for the dinner that night. "I guess he kept rambling on and on trying to impress Dad, but it wasn't exactly working."

"He's interested in Plastics?" Callie asked.

"Or Sofia," Faith added.

"Plastics," Sofia said. "Me too, but he said he might be interested in Plastics. It's still so early on. None of them really know what they want."

"Right," Arizona agreed. "I always knew I'd end up in Peds., but I really tried out everything in my intern year and gave it all a fair chance. I think that's the best way to do it unless you're completely, one hundred percent sure."

"Exactly," Faith nodded. "And it's not like we don't need to know about other specialties. We still need to be well-rounded surgeons. Many patients end up having more than one thing wrong with them and we all work with each other."

"Is that what you tell yourself when you're not on a Cardio case?" Callie asked.

"Yep."

When Nellie began to bark, she and Sebastian went to the door and found that the rest of their guests had just arrived. As usual, the dog was happy to see anyone who would give her attention, so her excitement level only increased.

"It's okay, Nellie," Faith told her. "They'll be here for a while. They'll have plenty of time to give you pets. I think they're even staying to help us figure out what extra things we should baby-proof."

"Are you excited to have a baby here one day?" Genevieve asked the puppy. "Your mom and dad are going to be such good parents, right?"

"We hope so," Sebastian smiled.

"It's kind of crazy how much you two have to go through to adopt when someone who is completely unprepared can just have sex and it's that simple for them to get pregnant," Gavin said.

"Yeah," Faith responded. "But I don't know if I like that idea so much. Expectant parents who are in that situation will be the ones to make us parents, so I have so, so much respect for them, too. I can't feel terrible because someone who isn't ready gets pregnant, when we're sort of waiting for that in a way. I don't want to hope for someone to be at such a tough point in their life, but I do want to hope for a family of my own."

"True," Genevieve said. "With that attitude, you'll be the best adoptive family ever."

The phone rang. As long as it wasn't the hospital, Faith was going to let the caller leave a message so that she didn't have to feel like she was ignoring their company. However, when she saw that it was the adoption agency calling, she couldn't do that.

"Hello?" she answered, putting it on speaker so that her husband could be a part of the conversation as well.

"Hi," their case worker, Brie, replied. "It's Brie."

There had been many phone calls back and forth since their first meeting and the three were now very comfortable with each other. It was nice. The couple knew that they could trust her advice.

"Sorry to call later in the day, but I was going over your paperwork today and I asked my boss to look at the information from your doctor since your medical history is a little bit more complicated than most…"

"Right…"

"And she feels like we need more information about the chances of complications arising," Brie explained. "I know Dr. Yang wrote that you're both doing well and she doesn't foresee very many issues, but it's still important that we know more about the possibilities. If you could get her to give us more information, that would be great."

"Oh, okay."

"This doesn't necessarily mean you're being turned down," she said. "It just means that our agency feels like we need to know more before we proceed. What Dr. Yang did say seems reasonably positive. We do realize that."

"Okay," Sebastian told her. "We'll get that to you as soon as we can."

"Great."

They finished up the phone call with the usual pleasantries, but they weren't exactly feeling pleased about what they had just heard. No, it didn't mean that they wouldn't be able to adopt, but it still concerned them. Plus, it delayed the process. They knew that delays were common, but they had hoped to avoid issues with their initial paperwork. It was difficult to hear that anyone was even a little unsure about whether or not they could adopt.

"Don't freak out," Sebastian said as he kissed his wife. "So they want more information. The bottom line is that Cristina said we're healthy enough to be parents. They can't disregard that part."

"They're the agency. They can do whatever they want."

"Well, they won't," Sofia hoped. "You're working with them because they don't just rule people with health issues out. They just want to know more."

"Exactly," Sebastian's dad, Darren, nodded.

"And that's fair," she replied. "But I don't have to like it."

"So, I guess we're not talking about baby-proofing?" Callie wondered.

"Oh, we are," Faith said. "We still have to get ready for the home visits. I doubt that Cristina's reports have made them turn us down. I read them and they're positive. I'll be so much more nervous for the home visits now, but this isn't over. Is it?"

"Let's just eat," Sebastian suggested. "We can obsess later."

"Or you can just not obsess because you know that it's going to work out," Wren said. "I would do that."

* * *

They actually managed not to talk about the adoption – or the most recent hiccup in their plan to adopt - for the majority of the dinner. Instead, they talked about Adler. As hard as it sometimes was for his mom and dad to sit around and talk about him in the past tense, they also deeply appreciated the friends that didn't shy away from it.

"Some people have almost started to act like he just doesn't need to be talked about anymore," Gavin said. "We know it's because they don't know what to say, but it doesn't make it easier for us. Talking about him is the only thing we can do now. It's one of the only ways to make sure that he stays a part of the family."

"Exactly," Genevieve agreed. "It doesn't matter to me that he was an adult when he died. He's still our son and we lost him. We won't just figure out how to live this new life overnight."

"Of course not," Arizona replied. "And you know that we're always here, right? I know we're busy people, but if you need anything just call."

"I know."

"I feel bad that we haven't seen each other in a while," Faith said. "I'm not trying to be one of those people who starts to disappear from your life. I promise."

"Oh, I never got that impression," she assured her. "I know that if I called any of you, or if Gavin did, or if the boys did, you'd be there. You have been. We just haven't seen each other in a while."

"Right," Sebastian nodded. "I've noticed that Cohen hasn't been opening up as much as Justice. Not that there's one 'right' way to grieve, but I'm still a little worried."

"Me too," she said. "Gavin keeps reminding me that he's an adult and we can't force him to talk. Even to us. But to me, they're still my kids. I don't care how old they get. I'll want to fix everything for them. I couldn't do anything for Adler, but I'm determined to get my other boys through this. It's going to be a lifelong thing, but…"

"It's definitely a lifelong process," Arizona confirmed. "My brother died years and years ago, and there are still some days that I'd give anything to talk to him. And now my parents. I don't have to tell you that, though. But they will be okay. So will you.

"And for the record, you did plenty for Adler," Darren added. "I know that he didn't get the heart and that's what you mean, but still. Parents of kids with H.L.H.S. don't have it easy. We know how much you had to do to make sure he even came home from the hospital in the first place. Let alone the rest of it."

"I know, but that will never feel like enough," Genevieve replied.

"I try to remind myself that he wouldn't want us thinking those thoughts, though," Gavin said. "He wouldn't even want us talking about him like this at all."

"Nope," Faith agreed. "He'd be sitting here trying to get me to calm down and telling me how awesome our kid will be and how great of an uncle he would be."

"I stopped believing that bad things couldn't happen to the people around me a long time ago, but something good has to happen," Genevieve said. " I know you guys have each other, and great careers, but still. I say that this is going to happen for the two of you."

"Adler was a big part of the reason that I wanted to start doing all of this sooner rather than later," Faith told his parents. "I just figure that life is too short not to go for it. Plus, it's going to take time."

"We know," Gavin smiled.

"I'll admit that I never thought we'd have grandkids, but now I really, really think we will. This thing that they need doesn't mean anything. You'll see," Darren said.

"When do you think Cristina'll be able to send that over to them?" Sebastian asked his wife.

"Hopefully tomorrow," she answered.

"Good."

"So let's figure out exactly how much stuff we need to baby-proof this place."

"Nellie, in a few weeks, you're going to feel trapped," Sofia told the dog. "I have a feeling baby gates will be everywhere."

"Oh, she'll end up learning that she can just jump over them," Sebastian said. "And she won't feel trapped. That sounds mean."

"She'll whine until we open them because she knows that we'll do the work," Faith replied. "Who do you think you're kidding? But that's good. I'd rather not have her jumping all of the time around a baby or toddler."

"Well, yeah."

"Don't worry," Faith said as she pet the dog. "We'll open them for you. We want our Nellie to be happy, huh?"


	21. Exciting New Developments

"You had a baby with H.L.H.S., right?"

"I did," Arizona nodded.

She could no longer keep that part of her personal life a secret, even if she wanted to. The success of her trial all of those years ago - and the publicity it had received - had made Faith's condition common knowledge to anyone who researched Dr. Robbins' motivation for the better treatment plan. Part of her resented how something so personal had become exposed, but Faith herself had never seemed to mind it.

Arizona used to be hesitant when telling other parents about Faith's history because she didn't want them to think that Faith's story was the norm for people with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The F.E.T. and Robbins procedures had certainly done so much for many patients, but Faith's case was different. She was doing as well as she was now because of her transplant, not because of her mother's work. The two were not really comparable.

"If this was your child, would you have…?" Mona Westfall, a mother who was thirty-four weeks pregnant with a baby who had the condition, started to ask.

Now that Arizona and her team had been successfully performing both of the procedures for as long as they had, she found that she was not always as nervous to talk about Faith, though. Most of the time, the parents who were considering these procedures for their own children wanted to know whether or not Dr. Robbins would have put her own daughter through them if she would have been given the choice at that time. When the procedure was still new, she hated that question. These days she was able to discuss her answer with ease.

"I absolutely would have decided on these procedures for her if I could have," she told her. "We can never guarantee success, but the quality of life that these procedures can give is usually better."

"We read that the first patient to ever survive both procedures died," Mona's husband, Donovan, said. "He was only in his twenties. I know you obviously can't say for sure because he was your oldest patient, but do you think that'll be the typical lifespan for the babies that have these surgeries?"

Dr. Brady decided to take over. They all hated the fact that news of Adler's death had also become public news. Sure, parents who were making these decisions absolutely deserved to know all of the facts. Still, they wanted to do everything that they could to protect Adler's memory and his family. These questions were difficult because they wanted to be honest, yet sensitive.

"As we've discussed before, neither approach is a cure," he explained. "Unless your child was to receive a heart transplant, they would still have a heart defect. What we try to do is to correct as much of the defect as we can. It doesn't change the fact that the child still has this condition, though. Like Dr. Robbins said before, the advantage to this particular approach is that it tends to give our patients a better quality of life since less time is spent in the hospital."

"We know that," Mona said. "I'm sorry. We're just nervous. We literally moved across the country for this. We had doctors back home, but we heard that you were the best. We need the best. And it all comes down to tomorrow. In less than a day, this'll be happening."

"We know," Nerissa replied. "Don't apologize. All of the parents who consider this have a lot of questions for us. Even questions that they know the answers to. It's normal to need to hear everything again. That's why we asked you to come in the day before. We needed to do some pre-op testing, but we also wanted to let you ask any questions you had. If you have questions tomorrow morning, that's fine, too."

"I feel like we have more questions, but I don't know what they are," Donovan told them. "We wrote them all down, but it feels like something's missing."

"Go home and think about it," Arizona suggested. "We'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. If you think of your other questions, feel free to let us know."

"On a Sunday afternoon?" he asked.

"Yes," Cristina nodded. "This is what we do."

"Okay."

* * *

"Are you going to make it to Declan's party?" Sofia asked her sister.

Her shift had just ended and she was headed to the birthday celebration now, but she wasn't sure what her sister was doing. She knew full well that sometimes surgeons couldn't stick to their plans when it came to life outside of the hospital.

"I should," she said from her seat at the nurse's station. "I'm done here. I'm just waiting for Mom."

"Why?"

"She has an H.L.H.S. case. They're doing the F.E.T. tomorrow morning."

"And you want in on it?"

"Don't I always?" she questioned. "I know that I can't always be on every H.L.H.S. case, but I haven't been on the last two. We don't really get that many anymore since this isn't the only hospital doing them these days, so…"

"I know," she said.

Arizona could tell exactly what her daughter wanted as soon as she and the other doctors came out of the room that they had been in. While she was very careful not to favour either of her children over their peers, she didn't really want to deny the request either. Faith deserved it.

"You can scrub in," she agreed. "Fine."

"Thank you," she smiled. "It'll keep me from thinking about whether or not I should call the adoption agency. I know Brie said that we could call her whenever we needed to, but she also said that she'd call us as soon as she knew what they thought of our health histories. It's been over a week, and I'm getting nervous."

"We know," Sofia said.

"I'm sorry," she replied. "Is it annoying?"

"No," she answered. "I would be nervous if I were you, too."

"You'll get a call soon," Arizona told her. "You'll see."

"I hope so. I know that waiting to be matched is going to be even harder than this, but adoption isn't easy."

"Come to Declan's party," Sofia suggested. "Hanging out with him always cheers me up."

"I'm leaving now, too," Arizona said. "As soon as I can go get changed."

"Alright."

"But Faith –"

"You want me to look over the patient's chart by tomorrow morning," she predicted. "I know. I'll come in even earlier tomorrow. It's really the middle of the night, but it's worth it."

"Good," Nerissa smiled.

Sofia arrived to her brother's house just a few minutes before Faith and Arizona did. Her nephew was already trying to convince her to let him open his gift when there was another knock at the door. The now two-year-old knew that someone else was here to see him, so that temporarily distracted him.

"Should we go see who else is here?" Sofia asked him.

"C'mon, Sof," he smiled as he got up and made his way to the door.

"I'm coming," she replied as she – and Nellie who Sebastian had already brought to the party – followed behind the birthday boy. "Who do you think it is?"

"Umm…Gampa," he giggled.

"Grandpa's already here, Silly," she laughed.

"Nana?"

"You're a goofball," she told him as she opened the door. "It's Faith and Arizona!"

"Happy birthday," Arizona smiled as she came in.

"Hi," he said. "Callie here."

"I know Callie's already here. She told me she was coming, but I had to work."

"I didn't know Nellie came, though," Faith said as her dog excitedly made her way past Declan and Sofia to get to her. "Seb brought her to your party, huh?"

"Yeah," he said. "Open stuff?"

Chelsea had already promised him that he could begin opening his presents as soon as everyone had arrived to the party. Now that they had, he wasn't about to wait any longer. Even at his young age, he knew that presents were pretty awesome.

"Everyone's here now," Sofia nodded. "Let's go open them."

"Yay!"

"Which one are you going to open first?" Callie, who happened to be sitting closest to the gifts, asked when they all came back into the living room. "Which one looks the most fun?"

He tried to pick one up, but the box was too big for his little arms to carry anywhere. Instead, he put it back down and began ripping off the wrapping paper that way. He didn't really care how he got into it, as long as he could discover what it was.

"How was work?" Callie asked, giving her wife a kiss while Declan worked on the wrapping paper.

"H.L.H.S. cases will always stress me out so much more than any other," she said.

"Why do you think I asked?"

"This one's even more stressful because we don't have Teddy. Not that Cristina's any less talented. She's beyond capable, but it's just that the group that we've become so, so used to is changing. Cristina's done these procedures, and I know she'll be amazing, but not having Teddy there is still different."

"But you'll have me," Faith smiled.

"You're scrubbing in on an H.L.H.S. case?" Sebastian asked as his wife joined him on the couch.

"Tomorrow morning."

"So I shouldn't count on seeing you very much tomorrow?"

"Not really."

"Okay."

"You've been doing this for years," Callie reminded her wife. "You could probably do it in your sleep."

"I don't know about that," she said. "These procedures are different for me. They're more personal. Not that all of my patients aren't important to me. They are, but there's something about the procedures that I helped develop that just..."

"That makes sense," Lexie said.

"Colours, Dada!" Declan smiled as he realized that the gift – this one from his Auntie Sofia – was a set of art supplies.

"Did you get paint?" Maxwell asked. "Which colours?"

"Wellow…"

"Yellow?" Mark corrected.

"Wellow, red, blue…lots!"

"Can you paint Nana a picture?" Lexie wondered.

"Yep," he agreed before he began trying to open the packaging.

"Later," Lexie added. "You have more gifts to open still!"

* * *

"Okay, we need to turn the D.V.D. off, please," Maxwell told his son a few hours later.

One of his gifts – a D.V.D. movie based on one of his favourite television shows – had already been put to good use. They had decided to let him watch it during the party just because he was so excited about it, but then he had replayed it. His dad wanted to make sure that they wouldn't have to view it for a third time.

"No, Dada," he refused.

"Yes," he said as he turned the television off. "You're too little for that much T.V. If you ask me, you're too little for _any_ T.V., but we let you watch just a little bit."

"Do you want cake now?" Chelsea asked the two-year-old.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Yes, please," she replied.

"Yeah, pwease."

"Come sit," she chuckled, since her son now pronounced the "L" sound in many words except for that one most of the time.

While everyone ate Declan's birthday cake – and a few other desserts that Chelsea couldn't resist making – the conversation drifted to other things once again. The little man didn't care. He was content to eat his treat regardless of what the adults were talking about. He also found it pretty funny to tease Nellie with it. Luckily, she eventually gave up on trying to get a taste, but still laid at his feet just in case there was some hope left.

"Oh!" Chelsea smiled, realizing no one else knew yet. "We set a wedding date."

"When?"

"October seventh," Maxwell said. "Not this October coming up, but the next one."

"Sounds good," Faith replied.

"I still can't believe we've been married for almost a year," Sebastian told her. "It feels like it went by so fast, and like so much has happened since then."

"Because so much has," she agreed. "Adler died, we started the adoption process… it's been a crazy year."

"What are you two doing for your anniversary?" Sofia asked.

"We don't really have plans," Sebastian replied. "We'll probably have a nice dinner or something if she's not working."

"I'll try not to be," Faith promised. "But you married a resident. This is what we do."

"I know," he said. "And it's not so bad."

Declan didn't mean to, but he dropped his fork to the floor and watched as Nellie began to lick it clean. He wanted it back, so he wasn't too pleased about the actions of his furry friend.

"No! Stop!" he ordered.

"We'll get you a new one," Chelsea said. "It's okay. Please don't use your hands, though. Wait for a minute."

Of course, Declan decided to dig right in with his hands. It wasn't that he really wanted to disobey, but just that he so badly wanted to finish the rest of his cake. By the time his mom returned with a new fork, he was covered in icing. She just laughed.

"You're going to need a long bath after today, huh?"

"Yep," he agreed.

"Are you having so much fun?" Sebastian asked him.

He nodded.

"Did you like all of your gifts?" Faith wondered.

"Good stuff," he answered.

"What was your favourite?" Sofia questioned.

"Ummm…lots, Sof."

"All of them?" Arizona asked.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"You're such a sweet kid," Faith told him. "When I have a kid, I hope they're as awesome as you are."

"Will you teach them how to be so fun?" Sebastian requested.

He nodded.

"Sounds like a plan. We should have just told the adoption agency that you want a friend. I'm sure that would have sped them up some," Faith joked.

"I wish," Sebastian replied.

* * *

Just as the party was ending, Arizona received a phone call from Dr. Brady telling her that Mona and Donovan Westfall were back at the hospital because she was nervous since she hadn't felt the baby kick in a few hours. It turned out that everything was the same as it had always been, and she was just very worried now that tomorrow was the day of her surgery. However, it did give Arizona another chance to see Faith in action.

"Faith's so good with patients," she was telling Callie that night as they ate dinner. "I know that she should be at this point, but she always has been. Sometimes residents can make patients nervous because they're not as qualified as Fellows or Attendings, but she puts them at ease. Nerissa did another ultrasound and she was talking about the heart, thinking that that would obviously be their main focus. And it was, but Faith started pointing out the baby's features and getting the parents to think about those, too. Mom's blood pressure went down right away."

Callie smiled.

"She understands," she said. "Not that she remembers any of it, but she has heard about how we felt. She knows what helped us."

"Yes," she agreed. "I feel better about working with her tomorrow. I don't know why, but doing these procedures with her almost seems like more pressure. I'm the Attending. It's strange. But she is really good on these cases. She's just good in general."

"Definitely."

Arizona's phone went off as she received a text from Dr. Brady. She knew that it was him based on the sound, and she wasn't sure if it had to do with hypoplastic left heart syndrome or not.

"Do you mind if I –?"

"Check it," Callie nodded.

Arizona got up and went to get her phone.

"Oh," she said as she read the message that Austin had just typed out.

"What? Do you have to go again?"

"No," she explained. "He was talking to Teddy and she suggested that maybe we should start having residents and Fellows shadow us. As in making sure that they see the _whole_ process. We have them scrub in on one procedure, but there's still another. They rarely get to do both. And then they don't get to see the process of figuring out which meds. are best for each patient even after surgery. That's half of the challenge."

"True," she said. "But why is this coming up now?"

"According to Brady, it's because we'll all retire at some point. Teddy already has. We need to start making sure that anyone who does this in the future is ready."

"He has a point. It would just be shadowing you. It doesn't mean that they have to take over now."

"I know. But he wants Faith to do it."

"And you don't?"

"That seems wrong for so many reasons," she replied. "For one, she's my kid. Everyone is going to think we're playing favourites. Two, she's only a third year. What about the fourth and fifth years? And the Fellows? And I know that Faith wants to work on this with us, but I still don't want to define her career for her at this point."

"It wouldn't, though. Arizona, you don't only do H.L.H.S. cases. Especially now that other hospitals do them, too. I know that patients still do come to you to do them, but you don't do _all _of them like you did when this was new. Shadowing you will still only be one part of what Faith does. And if she wants to stop, she stops. Right?"

"You have a point. But I don't know."

* * *

She thought about it for the night and talked it over with the rest of her team in the morning after they had successfully performed the F.E.T. together. Everyone else sided fully with Dr. Brady. Faith was perfect for something like that even if she was Arizona's child, and even if she was a third year. Arizona was still hesitant, so they agreed only to let her shadow one patient – Baby Westfall – and to give someone else a chance to follow the next one. They also agreed that anyone who was given the chance could back out at any time. Hopefully these children would live into adulthood. Odds were that most of the residents would choose different paths at some point. Arizona was satisfied. Everything was fair all the way around.

"And I know this is because we're going to need to be replaced eventually, but if you ever retire, I'll have to kill you," she told Dr. Brady. "Losing your wife was one thing, but you've been with me from the very start. With Faith, I mean. I've never had to face anything H.L.H.S. related without knowing that you had my back."

"I will tell my wife that I'm more important than her," he joked.

"No," she disagreed. "But it's just that our history of conquering this thing goes way, way, way back. Other than Calliope, you were the person to always keep me sane during all of it. Teddy was there and she was great, but I think back to that first fetal echo I had with you and that's when Calliope and I started to feel like we had some hope. I can't forget that day. And now that we get to give that hope to other parents..."

"Can we stop with the sentiment?" Cristina requested.

"I can't help it."

"Get used to it," Nerissa told her. "This is what she's like on these cases."

"Fine," Cristina said.

Faith walked in. Her mother had paged her to the same conference room that the team had always used to work on hypoplastic left heart syndrome related matters. She had no idea why. She had been sitting with Mona and Donovan in the hospital room and everything was just fine.

"What happened?" she asked.

"We have a question for you," Dr. Brady told her.

"Okay…?" she replied as she took a seat. "What's going on?"

"We want you to shadow us," Arizona explained. "Through Mona's recovery, the baby's birth, the Robbins procedure, afterwards…"

"Follow-ups and everything?"

"Yes," Nerissa nodded.

"Anytime that we see that baby, we want you there," Dr. Brady added. "Obviously you already have some idea of the ups and downs of H.L.H.S., but still. You've never done this before. It's one of the most important parts, too."

"You're not _on_ the team," Arizona clarified. "You're shadowing us. But what do you think? They've promised me that it won't necessarily define your career or eat up all of your time. You're hopefully going to be a mom soon. I didn't want you having to commit to anything too time-consuming. But we all do more than this. It's not as demanding as it was when it was in the trial stages. You would still have a personal li-"

"Stop talking like my mom," she smiled. "Of course I'm in! I don't need to think about it. I'm in."

"Are you sure?"

"She's sure," Dr. Brady laughed.

"Other people will get chances to do this, too," Arizona said. "But still. Don't go shouting it from the rooftops. I'm a little –"

"It's not favouritism if you were the only one not so sure," Cristina assured her. "Relax about that."

"I won't rub it in," Faith promised. "Well, except to maybe Sofia. But I'm her sister. That's my job. Plus, she doesn't really want to do H.L.H.S. stuff. Being in Peds. is enough like you for her."

"I know."

"Guess what?" Sebastian smiled as his wife appeared in his office doorway just minutes later.

She was there to share her good news, but he seemed equally thrilled by some news of his own. She wasn't expecting that. They were both way too happy for a Monday morning, they realized at the same time.

"Why are you saying 'guess what?'" she questioned. "I should be the one saying 'guess what.'"

"Brie just called."

"And they're not rejecting us because we have donor hearts?" she guessed.

"She didn't go into detail about that. But we have an appointment for our first interview, and we can sign up for the adoption classes. They start in two weeks and there's still room for us."

"Finally!" she exclaimed. "Yay! Do you realize that if everything goes well, we could be approved in what? A month or so?"

"Well, let's say two. The course is six weeks long, and scheduling the interviews might get tricky with your work schedule. But still. We're moving forward. This is happening, Faith!"

He may have had fears about parenthood at first, but those seemed like distant memories now. Completing all of that paperwork and having to wait over a week to find out if their medical histories would disqualify them had made him really, really want to be a father.

"Yay!" she cheered. "When is our interview?"

"Well…"

"What?"

"It's on our anniversary," he said. "But it was the first date she asked about and I wasn't about to say no. It's in the afternoon, so we'll still have the night to ourselves, but…"

"That's okay," she smiled. "So what if it's our first one and we're spending some of it answering questions about parenting or whatever the questions are about? We'll have plenty more anniversaries and it makes a good story to tell the grandkids one day."

He smiled.

"Can we focus on a kid first, please?"

"Sure."

"What's your news?"

"Compared to that, it's nothing," she laughed. "But I get to follow this H.L.H.S. patient through everything. There are so many exciting new developments today. I love it."

He smiled. He knew that both of these opportunities would be great for them. Shadowing the hypoplastic left heart syndrome team was a dream come true for his wife, and they were past a hurdle in their adoption journey.

"I would say we should celebrate, but you'll be here."

"Watching fetal monitors like a hawk," she nodded as she kissed him. "I'm sorry."

"I'll sleep in the on-call room."

"You're the best husband ever."


End file.
